Legacy of the Overlord
by ThreeCatsinaBarrel
Summary: Evil has had a setback, that is all. The minions will find a new master, or will a new master find them. Evil will always find a way. Rating is now Mature.
1. Humble Beginnings

**CHAPTER EDITED****: Chapter has been checked for spelling mistakes and plot mishaps.**

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Well what can I say. I began this story after a close friend asked me to write up a fanfic about a female Overlord.

Since I've just got Overlord 2 I decided to try and incorporate the two Overlord games in some way so I hope you like it. I'm using this story as a little break from my Prime Mover story, I tend to rush stories and get sloppy with plots if I get tired with them. But I'll get back to it soon enough.

I own nothing to do with the Overlord games, I only made Briar and if CodeMasters or Triumph Studios want to use her they can.

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**Legacy of the Overlord**

Chapter One: Humble Beginnings

Briar was getting tired of waiting. He should have returned with the kid by now. With each minute that went by she became more worried, more frustrated, it would be dark soon. The sun was slowly being swallowed by the horizon and its dying light cast the grazing pastures of Mellow Hills in a glorious, rich, red and orange glow.

It was a beautiful sight. But Briar was too preoccupied trying to spot her lead herd dog to notice the splendor of the scenery around her. The young girl sighed heavily from her vantage point on top of a large boulder which gave her enough height to see the smoke rising from the chimneys of Spree, a couple of miles away. If the sun faded before her dog got back it was very unlikely she would be able to see him in the dark for him to lead her to where the goat was if it was stuck. All she could do was continue to stand on her boulder and tap her fingers against her wooden crook.

Some more time past before, at last, she saw something dark and furry running over the far hills on all four legs. Weaving his way through the few patches of tall grass her goats hadn't eaten yet was Grimjaw, her lead herding dog. Since he was returning to her he had obviously found the lost goat kid, but since he wasn't bringing it home it must be stuck somewhere or had been taken by a predator. It hadn't been taken by a rustler, she knew that for certain; Grimjaw would be returning with their blood matting his fur if he had discovered a rustler with his master's goat. Even from this distance Briar could see his fur was still sleek and shining in the dying rays of the sun; no blood coloured his coat.

The large dog/ wolf hybrid took only a minute to race across the fields to reach her and her boulder. He stood, looked up at her and barked with his low, deep bark, a sign he could lead her to the kid. Briar jumped down and followed the small worn path that led back past the goat pen to her small home. It was just a small, simple built round house, big enough to house her and her mother, and at one point her beloved aunt as well. Her aunt had left when she was six and her mother had perished in the aftermath of the magical plague a couple of years later; the round house was Briar's alone now.

It was just one circular room which acted as living space, bedroom and kitchen with a small stove, a bed of straw and cotton sheets with a goat skin blanket, the floor was covered in carpets of goat wool, a lone table and two small stools stood in the center and the shed horns of some of her favorite billies had been carved with patterns and used as ornaments. A small fire and the last few rays from the sun were the only light sources in the house. It was just a place to rest as far as Briar was concerned, it had not felt like home for years, not since her mother died. Briar placed her crook up against the wall and replaced it with her sword; just a cheap thing she had got off of an unfortunate rustler who tried to make off with a couple of her goats a few years back. She wrapped her trademark red cloak around her shoulders, since the nights were gradually getting colder with the approach of Winter, and also picked up her leather pack bag, she had a feeling about where Grim would take her and you never knew what you would find in Evernight Forest: the young shepherd was ever the opportunist, just like her mother and aunt. Briar did not care about the unruly state of her jet black hair as she covered her head with her cloak, creating a hood; she could sort out any tangles in her dark locks when she returned.

As she turned to leave, she caught sight of her reflection in her mother's old mirror. She was a pretty girl, her features were soft from youth but were starting to sharpen with the onset of puberty. Briar was a little short for her age, but she probably had a few more years left of growing. She was thirteen, barely having reached into her teenager years, life had dictated that she grow up and get mature fast. Her reflection's pale blue eyes stared out at her from her hood, and this was the reason she was alone, for when Briar experienced pain or extremes in emotion, anger, sadness, even joy, her left eye would glow; the sign of a magic user.

Magic users in this part of the land, even a young girl who had shown no actual magical prowess, were treated with the utmost suspicion and distrust. Mostly because of the Great Cataclysm and the magical plague, the same one which had taken her mother, but also because of the propaganda of the Glorious Empire.

The Empire's army had reached Mellow Hills a year ago, but had so far not taken any action to dominate the region, so long as the villages and towns remained complacent about the Empire's power they had no reason to take over. It was another reason she had little contact with Spree and why she tried to hide her eye under a red cloak.

Spree's villagers called her Red Hood, or just Hood if they were really lazy, because of her cloak. She doubted anyone but Spree's mayor actually knew her name in the village. Her cloak gave her that air of mystery and edge of danger that many of Spree's lads, and many of the men, found alluring. She wasn't interested in any of those Spree idiots. Briar finished and although the cloak didn't give much protection, she was wearing thick woolen clothes underneath. She doubted that the bandits would cause her much trouble, years of fetching lost goats from the forest where the bandit hideouts were had made her sword skills the best in Mellow Hills, not to mention give those bandits a headache just by thinking about the colour of red cotton.

Shaking herself from her reflection, she went back outside and shouted to the rest of her dog pack to keep patrolling her goat pen and farmstead. Grimjaw, however, stood from the seated position he had adopted on the ground when Briar went inside, as his young master approached him. "Show." was Briar's simple order and Grim turned around and began to lead his master back across Mellow Hills' pastures and towards Evernight Forest.

------ LoO ------

Evernight Forest was a dark place. Evernight Forest had been a dark place ever since the elves left the forest when it had been corrupted by one of their leaders and after the drawfes attack them years ago, before she was even born (her mother had told her the stories); and bandits and monsters had overrun the ancient woods in the elves' absence. Briar and Grimjaw entered without hesitation, as they had done many times before. The monsters were easy enough for her and Grim to handle and the bandits had learned some time ago to fear the red cloak and large wolf cross. Briar's trademark had once belonged to one of their leaders, one of the worst bandit lords Mellow Hills had known.

It was why the villagers and townsfolk were so tolerant of her and why they had not given Briar to the Glorious Empire, which now ruled and governed the land from Heaven's Peak, at least . With Briar making frequent trips into the forest she and her dogs discouraged the bandits from attacking Spree and the other settlements that she traded with, the bandits thinking she would come to the villagers' aid if they did raid their homes.

The bandits should not have been worried. Spree had done nothing for her, or her mother, and Briar was not someone to help a person out of the kindness of her heart, especially when they had shunned her from their very society. She would help the mayor, she would gladly help Old Archie. But the Spree villagers had done nothing to earn her loyalty.

Briar kept her sword ready and Grimjaw listened for every sound as he led her to the goat kid, they made no noise, letting the screeching of birds and creaking of the trees hide their footsteps. Briar was good with a sword, but that did not mean she purposely went in to the forest for a fight.

Evernight's constant mist hung low to the ground, swirling around their legs and leaving twisting patterns in their wake as they neared the river that ran through the great forest. Grim led her to several trees on the opposite bank of the river that had grown close to each other and their exposed roots had created a small hollow in which Briar could see a small goat had got itself stuck in long reeds. The big herding dog kept watch as Briar worked to get the kid free, once untangled the child shepherdess tucked the young animal under her left arm and began to walk back through the forest.

Halfway back along the route Grim had taken her, the dog stopped and growled dangerously at something lying in the tall grass at the center of a clearing; moonlight shining in from the opening the clearing made in the forest canopy providing the light Briar needed to examine the creature.

It was small, at first Briar thought it was a child, but it had large pointed ears and tan, almost earthy brown scales covering its whole body and it wore a small, simple loin cloth made from what looked like rabbit fur; it certainly wasn't a child. It's blood was everywhere, staining the grass in the clearing and its crushed head showed that it had been trampled.

Briar felt the tingling in her left eye as it suddenly began to glow with its blue light.

She heard a sound like thunder, the ground shaking under her feet.

She leapt out of the way just in time as something large and white shot past her, its head bent down and a long twisted horn stretched for half a meter out in front of it. Grim ran and hid behind the trees, he had no chance against this creature alone.

Turning to face the monster, Briar raised the tip of her sword to it, the bloody unicorn just stared at her with mad glassy eyes as it recovered from its charge.

"Wow! Glowy eye, blue glowy eye! Torn never seen that."

"Horsie too slow the blue glowy eye!" The child-like voices had not been expected and Briar couldn't understand where they had come from, she kept her sword trained on the monster before her eyes searched for the source of those voices. Her eyes fell onto five more of the brown creatures she had seen lying in the grass, their eyes glowing amber. They were taking cover up a tree to her left having climbed it to get away from the mad unicorn who had trampled their fellow. The blood stained beast charged and once again Briar leapt out of the way, slashing the beast's rump as it past by her with only a foot of distance. Grim took the opportunity to rush from his hiding place and took a bite at its ankle, causing another injury that would slow the unicorn down.

"Yeah! Bash it, blue glowy eye! Bash it!" the brown creatures roared in delight. The unicorn prepared to charge again, shaking its blood drenched mane and scraping its front hooves against the ground. Briar backed herself against one of the trees outlining the clearing, Grimjaw followed with his fur standing on end and teeth bared in a snarl, a deep and dangerous growl emanating from low in his throat and chest.

The unicorn charged, its injuries appearing to cause no difference in its speed at all. It lowered it head, the tip of the horn coming straight at her chest.

Briar's eye glowed fiercely as a content, knowing grin split her face. She had this over-rated pit pony right where she wanted it. The glowing, amber eyes of the brown creatures watched, unblinking.

The monster was no more than a foot away from impaling her when Briar dodged again, Grim leaping away in the opposite direction of his master, and the unicorn had no time to correct its course. Its pointed horn easily speared the tough bark and thick trunk of the unmovable tree which Briar had pressed herself against. The unicorn shook it head and tried to pull back but its screw-like horn was stuck fast, its tip sticking out of the other side of the tree.

"Ha Ha! Stupid horsie!"

"Wow, blue glowy eye so smart. And good at bashin'!" Briar wished they'd stop calling her 'glowy eye'; her hands would've fisted until she remembered she was still carrying the kid under her arm. The young goat bleated as if to show her it was still there as she stood up from having thrown herself to the ground to trick the mad beast.

Grimjaw was already biting into the bloody unicorn's throat once Briar's attention turned back to the beast; it was trying to stamp on him with its front hooves but it couldn't move properly in order to do so.

The brown creatures had climbed down from their tree, not caring about their trampled fellow, so they could gather around and taunt the trapped unicorn. Grim had managed to cause several bad wounds to its neck and the large canine was still trying to get at the monster's windpipe to choke it.

"Ahh, nice doggy, so helpful." Briar rolled her eyes and dropped her sword down onto the doomed monster's neck. With its spinal cord severed the unicorn went limp and the weight of its body caused its horn to snap at the base of its forehead. Briar was able to remove her trophy from the tree by unscrewing it since the horn was twisted and placed it in her pack bag, taking her skinning knife out.

"Gloob likes glowy eye. Glowy eye bash pony easy." A brown creature with very tattered ears said, watching as she gave the goat kid to Grim, who held it securely in his bloody jaws without his teeth causing any harm to the young goat. The young kid just let the huge dog take charge of him, bleating every now and then.

"My name is Briar." She told the brown goblin, not even turning her eyes to look at him as she began skinning the unicorn.

"Gloob likes Briar. Briar bash pony easy."

"Briar is smart and tricky." Another brown creature said "Briar make good mistress for next Overlord, yes?" The other creatures seemed to agreed, but Briar had only been halfheartedly listening to their conversation, she was too concentrated on her skinning to really pay any notice. But then the word 'Overlord' was mentioned and that gained her attention. It was a word associated with fear in Spree, so it was a word she liked.

Her mother had told her stories when she was younger, stories that were often used to scare young children but had kept her enthralled with wonderment. Stories about a dark warrior who controlled a vast army of demons, he had brought the of kingdoms of humans, dwarfs and elves under his control, even the temple in Heaven's Peak had known his armored grip. He had forced the Halflings from their villages, burned towns to the ground when the townsfolk tried to rise against him, and he had even played a part of the elves leaving this forest. The Overlord had disappeared shortly before she was born, but the land still had scars from the conquests of his army. Men in Spree and the surrounding settlements still talked in hushed voices.

Briar took an inquisitive glance at the brown creatures who were chatting excitedly amongst themselves. They seemed to have a connection with the Overlord, but a demonic army? They were magical creatures, their eyes glowing brightly even with the strong moonlight proved that much, but Briar found it hard to believe that these... things... could conquer a gnome hole, let alone an entire land. They were barely the height of young children.

The unicorn's skin finally came free. Briar stood, folded the large bloody pelt as best she could and began the walk home again; Grimjaw followed with the goat kid still safely in his jaws and the brown creatures followed behind him, picking up sticks as they went which they brandished like clubs.

When bandits came across the skinned unicorn some hours later, they knew exactly who had been here.

------ LoO ------

The brown 'minions', as they called themselves, had surprised Briar on the walk back to her tiny farm. They were quite good fighters when it came to creatures the same size as them or the size of a human, they used their greater numbers and surprising strength to overpower enemies. A unicorn required a greater number than six to stop its charging. When it came to the Evernight 'rat archers' the browns took them out easily, taking their skulls as helmets, and Briar's walk back through the forest was a dull event with the browns clearing the way for her and Grimjaw.

It was early in the morning when they reached home and while Grim took the young goat back to the pen Briar hammered the unicorn pelt to a side of her small barn to dry. Afterward, Briar dragged her feet to the door of her home.

"Mistress, we go sleep in barn." She turned around to see the browns as they ran back, off in the direction of her small barn. All it had was hay, rats and the occasional chicken egg she hadn't seen when collecting them in the morning. They were too far off now for her to call them back, so she left them to it. Besides, it was hardly like they could get a room in Spree and night hunters were often hired to hunt magical creatures in the woods. _"Fellow magical creatures."_ Briar found herself thinking.

She entered her home. Grimjaw had most likely rejoined his pack in guarding the farm so she had no more worries and she had no other pressing matters for a while now until she had to ready her cart and orders for the markets, but that wasn't for a few more days. Freeing herself from her sword and cloak she slept fully dressed since she did not bother to start the fire, which had gone out while she was looking for the goat kid. The nights were growing colder.

She dreamed that night, the first time in what felt like ages. A dark warrior, a dark lord, with a great army of brown minions clad in armour around him, a huge magnificent tower standing strong far behind him in the background with some great mountains capped with snow; he held out his hand for her and she reached back for him.

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Well? Do you like it?

Truthfully I don't know where to take this plot after I get Briar to Nordberg, if any one can think of something I'd be very grateful, even if it turns out I don't use your idea I might turn it into a oneshot story.

If you enjoyed it please leave a review. I can't take any responsibility if the minions should take offense against you not leaving a review.


	2. The Days, They're Getting Stranger

**CHAPTER EDITED****: Chapter has been checked for spelling mistakes and plot mishaps.**

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Thanks to 'samurai89' and 'Dragonal01' for their reviews and their plot ideas, please keep them coming. Like I stated in the last chapter I might not use them in this story but if your idea grabs my attention enough I might turn it into a one shot story or interlude, so don't get discouraged from leaving ideas.

Thanks again.

I own nothing to do with the Overlord games, I only made Briar and if CodeMasters or Triumph Studios want to use her they can.

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**Legacy of the Overlord**

Chapter Two: The Days, They're Getting Stranger

It was strange having company on her farmstead again, or at least having talking company. While Grim and his pack, a herd of goats and a donkey that thought he was a goat were enough for young Briar when it came to companionship it was amazing how much she missed a talking voice, even if it was the clipped, childlike voices of the brown minions. The days that the browns had first joined her on her farm had turned into a week and Briar was thankful that they had stayed. Though she would never say it aloud.

Her working routine throughout the days had not changed, it was the same every week, of every year. Wake early, graze the goats in the pastures, bring them back and go to bed late. But now the browns had joined her, she found the routine easier. They had somehow befriended her dog pack during the days they had first started helping around the farm and the browns riding around on their backs were now a common sight. Grimjaw, Fang, Riptooth, Jagger, Dark Lace and Bubbles all had their favorite riders. Bubbles, a huge, particularly bad-tempered female which Briar believed may have been dropped on her head a few times as a puppy... and had a face to match, only allowed Gash to ride her. The browns also protected and herded the goats with the pack; they seemed just as good as the dogs at taking orders. Their strength came in handy too when it came to moving things and packing her cart with goods to take to the settlements around her farm.

It was a clear, chilly morning, mist and dew clung to the grass and made the vibrant green blades glisten before they were promptly covered by a goat mouth and subsequently eaten by said goat. Briar was once again stood upon her boulder watching her herd graze on the pastures around the farmstead; she could see her dogs roaming around the edges of the eating herd, making sure none strayed too far and got into trouble. For once, the browns weren't riding any of them since they were busy securing her produce in her old cart and harnessing Brum, her donkey, to the front it in the barn. "Mistress Briar, cart is ready." She heard Gloob say behind her. Briar jumped down from her vantage and followed the tattered eared minion into the barn.

There stood Brum with a full cart of goat meats, pelts, milk, balls of wool made from goat fleece and even horn castings, there was also a separate pail of water for her and Brum as they walked to the towns and villages, along with some dried meat for Briar and a feed bag of oats for Brum when they got hungry. The other minions stood around waiting for Briar's approval.

"Are the straps done tight?" Briar asked going other and checking them. Most of her trade was done via orders, and the minions had strapped all of the different orders together. The shanks and two pairs of horn casts for Miss Joiner in the town of Crosskeys and a bag of wool balls and two pails of milk for the Smith family in Travellon village.

"Tight, Mistress." Rasp said as he held out Brum's reigns. Taking the long reigns she led the laid-back donkey outside into the sun, the cart following along behind obediently, most of the minions had dashed outside already so they were waiting for her.

"Minions no able to go with Mistress." Torn explained sadly, his ears drooping. "Minions got something to do."

"See you soon, Mistress!" Briar wasn't able to see who had said the last sentence as the minions had run off before she could get a word out to ask what they were doing; it had sounded like Pummel, with his annoyingly high voice. Briar decided it was probably better if she didn't know what they were doing; some of the adventures they had got themselves into were enough to make even a hardened war veteran think twice about doing some of things they had done while they searched for a new Overlord, and even some of the things they had done in the service of the old Overlord. Walked the firey land of the Infernal Abyss itself, retrieve something called a dark crystal from inside the stomach of a dragon, fighting Queen Succubus with no details spared on just how they killed their prey, an army of the undead (most worrying about that was that it was at Heaven's Peak), great carnivorous worms in the vast deserts far, far to the South across the sea and, worst of all to Briar, the giant slugs in the dwarfen mines to the North. Briar cringed at the very thought.

Deciding it as better not to think about the damage giant, dwarf-eating slugs would do to her vegetable patch she climbed onto the cart and eased Brum into going forwards. Her first stop was the town of Crosskeys.

------ LoO ------

The ruins of the arcane gateway were not very far away from the farm but you had to know the way across the small bridges and pathways that led to the stone ruins to get to them. The minions knew the way like they knew the sound of a rat skull being crushed under a club, they knew it by instinct, drawn to the residue of its power and the power of the Great Cataclysm that had leaked through the magical link the gateway had to the Old Tower and to the rest of the world. The minions clawed, three-toed feet pattered against the ground which was covered with faintly glowing grass and even the leaves in the trees which hid this place so well seemed to glow with their own inner light; magic power the vegetation had absorbed from the leaking gate.

Gloob, Gash, Rasp, Torn and Pummel searched the ruins and observed the fallen stones as they made their way to the center of the gateway, the circular stone power plate was devoid of light and the minions let out a collective sigh in frustration. The plate should be working.

"Gateway not working."

"Speak obvious, Torn." Pummel said kicking a stone at the plate as if it would somehow get it to work. "Why not working? Master Gnarl send power surge by now."

"Only Gnarl show Briar to safety. Gnarl teach Mistress magic too." Gash said, knowing enough to know that Briar had to be taken away from Mellow Hills. The Shinnies were too close and the next Overlord would not like a dead mistress; if the next Overlord could be found that was. "Mistress Briar not safe, got to take her to Minion Burrows. Away from Shinnies." His brother browns agreed with him and each went silent as they tried to force their tiny minds to think up a plan as to what might be wrong with the gate. Their heads were hurting badly when Gloob saw Rasp was looking around the ruins again paying attention to the power plate mostly.

"What you thinking Rasp? You got plan?"

"Yeah, tell us. Tell us." The others demanded. Rasp could remember that the light that had once emanated from the arcane gate had been blue, the same as Briar's glowy eye. He knew that the ruins could draw power from things around it, that was why only magical persons could use the gateways. If Briar's glowy eye was the same as the magic of the arcane gate then...

"Briar can power gateway." Rasp explained to the others. "Then one of us run through, get Gnarl." The minions allowed the plan to run in their heads for a second and then they cheered their brother brown, but realized they would have to think of a way to get Briar here. After the long day she might not follow them if she was tired.

"We ask Grimmy and other doggies to bring goats, Briar come to take them back to farm." Gash said and now he was cheered by the rest of his group.

Browns were not known for their brains, so having come up with this little idea was something of a miracle for this low-rank group. Gnarl had sent them back to the old lands ill-prepared as he didn't think they would find anything. Not that they knew that. But for now, they had the rest of the day to try and convince Grimjaw and his pack to herd the goats to the ruins. They wasted no time in returning to the farm to set their plan in motion.

------ LoO ------

Briar was blissfully unaware of this little scheme as she came close to finishing off her trading day. Her last stop was the village of Spree and Spree was as it always was, the sewers, or rather lack of them, stinking to high Heaven, the villagers not too far behind the drains when it came to their personal hygiene and, of course, the sneers and taunts as she directed Brum over the village's small drawbridge and moat, then along the path that took her to the front door of the Happy Mule Inn. The young girl paid no attention to the rotten food goods that were hitting her cart, it was the norm, and the villagers knew that if any of it struck her she would raise her prices. Briar was the only shepherd nearby that had the knowledge to raise goats, her herd was the only one close by, every other farmer specialized in sheep. The throwers were most likely children, and they couldn't aim to save their life's; Briar was sure of it.

The taunts stopped very suddenly only a few yards from the front door of the Happy Mule, Old Archie was already waiting for her outside giving the children a terrible glare as they quickly past him. He was the only person that ever smiled at her after her mother died and her aunt left. The Ruborian man was portly, but strong and his black hair was starting to pepper with grey as he patted Brum on the rump when Briar stopped him a few feet short of putting his furry head and long ears through one of the Inn's windows.

"Briar! I thought it was about time you showed up." A large smile graced his features as he helped her down from her near empty cart, his deep, friendly voice a nice change from all the viciousness she often got. Her orders were all gone, only Archie's order for six pails of milk was left and most of her loose items had been bought too. Spree was her last stop before she went home and judging by the crowd that was already gathering around her cart, Briar was hopeful of selling the rest of the pelts, wool and horn castings. "Hey! Looks like you've done some good trade today, Girl." Archie commentated when he saw some live chickens in cages and some high quality beef and lamb meats tucked away from the produce she was selling.

"I think the guy that sold me the chickens gave them away cheap because they were stolen, and the butcher in Stratton village gave me the meats as payment for several balls of wool." Briar explained, setting the pails the Spree mayor had ordered onto the ground at his feet.

"All that meat, just for some wool?" Archie asked amazed. Goat products were a novelty here in Mellow Hills and everyone was prepared to pay the higher prices for a bit of luxury. But every person in every nearby town and village knew what Briar had and used it as an excuse, or tried to use it as an excuse, to get things cheap. If they did try Briar would just tell them to find another trader. But still, even if Briar didn't have her... eye condition... a few balls of wool simply wasn't worth that amount of very high quality meat, goat wool or otherwise.

"The butcher is having an affair with the Blacksmith's widow." Briar explained, a smile could be heard in her voice at the memory of them seeing her after a rather intense necking session. She had been looking for the Blacksmith's son he had taken over the forging business after his father's accident, who had ordered a couple of milk pails and some horn castings. "He bought the wool to lead his wife off the trail and paid extra for my silence. His wife likes the softness of goat wool and knits with it."

"Ha ha! Clever girl, well done." Archie said patting her roughly on the back with his large hands and almost sending her into the mud, and with that, Old Archie began to take the pails down to his cellar and cold store still chuckling from mirth at the unfortunate butcher. He then kept Briar company through the short time she could sell, making sure no one gave her any trouble.

------ LoO ------

Briar returned home about two hours after the sun had set, the stars and the moon were the only light she had to see the road and the path that led to her farm. She was surprised to see her goats weren't still in the fields but then realized something must have been wrong when she reached her pens to see the dogs hadn't got them in. The farm seemed to be deserted. Everything was still in place so it probably wasn't raiders or thieves. This was not what she needed after a day like today. Getting down from the cart and taking the harness off Brum, she pulled her sword from its scabbard, she always kept it with her on trade days in case someone decided to get nasty with her, and began to search her homestead with the donkey, not wanting to leave him on his own.

She found Grimjaw sitting near her boulder waiting for her, his tail wagging, happy she was back. He stood and barked and she hoped that it wasn't just for one goat. Since Brum was with her she mounted his back, the donkey hardly battered an eyelid at her weight, and gave Grim the order to take her to the herd. Brum followed the dog without needing Briar's heels in his side.

Grimjaw led them in a direction she had never known her goats to go before. An area of rough land that no one had any use for, it was too hard for crops to grow and the grass was not very good so no flocks grazed here, why had her goats come here? There was nothing for them to eat except perhaps some berry bushes but they would be devoid of any fruit this time of year. Grim continued and Brum followed the large dog across a series of bridges and small paths until Briar at last saw her herd roaming around what looked like a circle of stone pillars, well hidden from view by tall trees. Goats were surprisingly good climbers and some of the goats were grazing on the leaves on the trees and groups were eating the tall weeds growing out of the crevices and broken mortar in the pillars. It struck Briar how much the moonlight seemed to cause the grass and leaves to glow; she had never come here before... she didn't know.

"Mistress!" Briar looked closely at the ruins to see the browns were standing beside its pillars and fallen stones waving their arms at her and jumping up and down.

"Yay! Mistress is here!" Briar returned her sword to it scabbard and went to the minions who were now circled around a stone plate dug into the center of the ruin. Briar felt her eye begin to tingle, it was glowing. The minions became more excited.

"Mistress use magic on plate!" Briar couldn't believe what she had just heard. She didn't want anything to do with magic, it made her different, had been the bane of her very existence her entire life, she wouldn't cast a spell for a load of brown creatures that had only been helping her about her farm for a week; even if she did know how to cast a spell.

"What?" it was all she could say, she was too stunned by their request to say anything more.

"Mistress make gateway work with magic," Torn explained "Torn go get Gnarl from Snowy Lands."

"Mistress Briar no stay here." Gloob said, his child-like voice sounding serious for once. "Shinnies coming, they kill Mistress when find you." She couldn't fault them there; they were probably right. If these 'Shinnies' were the Empire soldiers, yes they probably would kill her when they discovered she had a glowing magical eye and if she could do magic, which the browns think she could... she didn't want to think of what the Empire might do to her.

"Gash likes Mistress Briar. Briar is BEST Mistress. Gash no want Briar to die."

"Torn don't either." The other minions agreed and Briar was genuinely touched by their concern, especially when you considered the fact that they were evil creatures. But the fact remained, she didn't know how to cast spells. The sensation in her eye grew, and then started in her right eye. The minions gasped as both her eyes began to glow with that pretty blue light. Around them, the ruins began to pulse.

"Wow! Mistress has arcane magics!" they yelled in delight.

Briar felt hot, a strange burning sensation began in her fingertips before spreading up her arms, glowing markings appeared on her skin getting brighter and brighter. The minions cheered as the lights began to course through the carvings on the stones.

Briar could see her dogs and her herd had gathered around the outside of the circle of stones and she again found herself amazed at the tricks her mind and the moonlight played on her, she thought she could see that her goats had glowing eyes. But she was not able to ponder this. She screamed as a bolt of blue fire came rushing out of her right arm and she aimed instinctively at the power plate; scattering the minions and causing the ruins to burst into life. White light shot up into the sky from the circular stone plate in the ground and Torn rushed forwards after picking himself up off the ground.

"Yay! Mistress done it! Me bring Gnarl soon Mistress!" The minion shouted as he ran into the light, it disappeared with him a second later and the ruins went quiet again.

Briar fell to her knees and felt the sensation in her eyes dim to nothing as the minions and her dogs came close. Grim licking her face to rouse her from her stupor. The minions were beside themselves with excitement, their plan was working and Briar could use magic. And not just any magic, but arcane magic. As far as they knew, only Overlords could use arcane magic.

The browns helped Briar back to her feet and Gloob bought Brum over to her but before mounting Briar checked the eyes of several goats. _"It must have been a trick of the mind"_ she reasoned as she looked into the eyes of her top billy, Ramrod, no glowing. She mounted Brum and the minions mounted the dogs so they could return back to the farm.

Goats were not known to be a very intelligent animal and Briar's goats were no different, to them Briar was something that kept them safe from predators, who led them to food and generally increased their chances of survival. If Ramrod did think about anything concerning Briar it was _"Stay close to tall Thing. Stay out of predator stomach."_

But something had changed. Goats were surprisingly good creatures at absorbing magical energy, it was why goats were used so often as religious sacrifices, especially old religions where magic played a big part. But no one however, had fed magic grass to a goat before.

Now, as Ramrod fell in line following Briar and Brum back to the farm he thought something different, many others of his fellow goats were thinking different as well, the same _different_ that he was thinking. _"Stay close to Shepherd. The Shepherd keep me safe."_

Briar's flock would never be the same again, they would become something more.

------ LoO ------

Another couple of weeks past as they waited for Torn to return with whoever this Gnarl character was, the minions had been with her for nearly a month now. The weather was getting colder all the while but her routine still did not change, it was the same whatever the weather, whatever temperature. There had been one change, however, seeing the browns begin to shiver in the early mornings one day Briar had used some left-over goat pelts to make them simple tunics and trousers in their sizes, there was one waiting for Torn when he got back. Needless to say the minions were elated with them.

It wasn't all good however, there had been some strange incidents around the farm that had the young girl worried. Some of her old woolen blankets had been taken from the barn, including a red one her beloved aunt had given her, but Grimjaw and the rest of his pack hadn't noticed anything, they weren't even getting agitated from a possible thief on their territory. But she had got them and the brown minions to scour her farm for any intruders when she realized one of her crooks had gone missing from inside her round house one day when she had returned from collecting the chicken eggs, nothing else was missing just her old crook, that wasn't how a thief or worked, thieves weren't usually this picky. Neither the dogs or the minions had found anything. A thief, or a raider, or a rustler or any other thing that tried to steal from her she could deal with; but an intruder that her dogs couldn't smell worried her and she slept with her sword tuck into the straw of her bed.

That had been a few days ago and with nothing else going missing the young girl began to calm down, though her sword did stay with her wherever she went. This morning, Briar did not wake until late in the morning but she awoke refreshed and light, feeling like she didn't want to get out of bed, but she had work to do and that work wouldn't do itself.

Ever since coming back from the ruins she had felt... better. It was a strange word to say but it was the best way Briar could describe it to herself. It was like she had been sick, but she hadn't known she was sick until whatever happened at the ruins cured her. She got up dusting herself off from the hay and straw her bed was made from and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she stretched. Looking around at the state of her little home with her remaining crooks strewn about the place and the fleece carpets covered in dust, along with the lack of fresh clothes to put on having neglected her washing for a few days, she decided that today was a clean-up day. Her mother would've gone ballistic at her if she were still alive.

With a resigned sigh, Briar searched out her large cauldron-like pot, which she used to wash her clothes in, and set it on the steel holder in the fireplace beside her simple stove lighting a fire underneath it once she had finished. The young girl watched the flames get stronger for a while before she picked up a bucket near her front door and left to start filling the pot with water from a well near her barn.

The goat pen was empty. She stopped and looked around. It was time for them to be out since she had slept late and Grim and his pack would be with them, as well as the browns who she thought must have opened the gate when they realized she was still asleep; they had learnt her routine by heart. Goats nor a donkey had the brains, or the means, to opening a gate; perhaps a dog could be smart enough to learn how, but she had never trained any of her dogs to do that. She carried on to the well thinking nothing more about it and knowing Grim would come running to her if there was any trouble.

She was returning to the well for a third time when she saw a brown minion coming out of it, yawning like he had just woken up, a few seconds later four more had joined the first. Briar felt her eyebrows rise as she dropped the well's water bucket down the deep hole, hearing it splash when it hit the water at the bottom.

"Mistress? Awful morning?" Rasp asked politely.

"I hope not." Briar said pulling the rope to raise the bucket back up. "Did any of you open the gate to the pen earlier?"

"No, Mistress." Gash answered "We asleep 'till now." Her fingers tapped the bucket as she carried it back to the house. The minions began searching around the pens looking for anything that their mistress might find helpful, they knew her well enough now to know that she would start to look for her 'furry, horned ones' soon. Briar reappeared outside a moment later, dressed in her cloak and with her sword strapped around her waist. The Minions had found nothing to help her but they followed her as she went to her boulder, climbed on top and whistled. Grimjaw came rushing to her from the west, from the direction of the ruins.

And soon, Grim was leading her back to the stone circle and the browns were trailing along behind, holding their clubs and occasionally talking amongst themselves. Nothing had changed at the ruins, Torn still wasn't back and Briar was beginning to wonder if the minion had perished in what ever place the gateway had opened up at. The stones weren't glowing, though Briar did feel a slight tingling in her eyes but the glow was barely noticeable. Briar was more concerned that she still couldn't see her goats even though Grim didn't seem too fazed by it. Red fabric, flapping in the wind drew her eyes to the inside of the ruin.

At first she thought it was a person standing in the ruins watching her, they weren't very tall and seemed a little on the chunky side, but looking closer Briar found the reason why. It wasn't a person at all. Her old red blanket which she thought had been stolen from her barn was wrapped around the top of a hastily built pillar of stones and rocks, like how she wore her red cloak, the rest of her old blankets were wrapped around the bottom of the rocks. Her crook was also there, held to the 'statue's' side with a bit of string. Someone had built a little, rough made statue of what looked to be her. It had been built near to the back of the ruin so it was the first thing you saw as you approached the arcane gate. Laying at the statue's feet were pine cones and late berries, probably the last for this year, and a little bowl holding white liquid.

Bending down she picked up the bowl and sniffed it before tapping a small lap at it with her tongue. Goat milk, fresh and still warm.

Briar heard the sound of small hooves tapping on stones and smiled as at last, some of her goats came in to the ruin and approached her and the statue.

The small bowl she had been holding fell to the ground and the milk split across the ground as her hands went numb. Briar couldn't believe what she saw.

They were her goats all right, all sixty of them. But with one slight difference... they were walking on their hind legs and their front legs had bent the other way to create arms ending in hands which had two fingers with large hoof nails and a thumb.

She was still able to recognize them because their faces had not changed and their fur coats' still bore the marks she used to distinguish them when she herded them with the dogs. Briar was struck dumb, for the first time that she could remember, she couldn't think of or do anything. Even the minions stared at the altered goats, their little minds unable to process anything unless it was one thing at a time.

"Goaties?" she didn't care who had asked.

The goats were a little bigger than the minions, with the billies being the tallest, their horns looking somehow more dangerous while they were standing on two legs. Briar's eyes were drawn to a female she called Sally, a young female who had just started giving milk and with her abdomen starting to show she was pregnant. Beside Sally was Butt, a male kid with a torn ear he had got from a scuffle with a rustler. Her eyes fell on Ramrod, the largest of the goats, his long, tawny fleece and large horns gave him a rugged yet regal appearance. He stepped forwards and bowed low to her.

"Shepherd." A voice coming from a goat mouth sounded very strange to Briar. But Briar's life recently seemed to full of strange things.

"Goaties talk now!" Glood said, sounding his surprise as the other minions cheered for no reason what-so-ever as the herd closed in around Briar. Briar could see Fang was sat near the statue, his thin, lithe form hid the strength that resided in his jaws, and the hulking form of Bubbles was keeping close eyes on the rear of the herd surrounding Briar. No doubt the others in the pack were around somewhere. Grim was sat at her side.

"Does the Shepherd like her idol?" Ramrod asked, he seemed to be acting as the spokesperson for her new, more sophisticated goat herd. "Brays want all the world to know where they came from. How the Shepherd raised them and used them."

"... Brays?" it was Briar's first word as the shock began to wear off, quickly being replaced with thoughts like_ "How am I meant to milk them now?"_. The females' udders had moved to their chests with their... altercation... and took on the appearance of breasts. The herd just seemed excited that she had addressed them.

"Goats not understand how the Shepherd uses them, protects them from the Greater Horrors, gives them purpose for life. Purpose is to better the Shepherd. But we are different, we know this, we gave ourselves a new name; we are Brays. Brays know their purpose." Ramrod had started off on his own but had quickly been joined by others as they chanted as one; they must have been going over this for days, deciding what they were. Goats with religion, Briar bet no one had heard this before. "If Shepherd wishes a death, a gift of meat and fur, then the Shepherd will get a death. If the Shepherd wishes a payment of protection, a gift of milk or horn or wool, then the Shepherd will get a payment." They were working themselves into a frenzy a voices and the excitement seemed to be catching for the dogs and the minions. The minions cheered with 'Brays' when they cheered and Girm and his pack howled along with them. The noise was hurting her head and it was still too early in the day to deal with a headache, she still had things to do at the farm.

"Quiet!" The effect was instantaneous. Everything went quiet, no one made a sound, the dogs were on their feet again, the browns looking at her with their ears perked, the brays in a similar fashion. "I have other things to do other than make sense of this all in an hour. Get my blankets and crook from the statue and lets go home, I've left that washing pot long enough." A bray had already taken the red blanket from the collection of stones and another took hold of her crook rushing to Ramrod and giving him the items. Since Briar was already walking, the big billy took it upon himself to bring her things home. He gathered the blanket around his body and walked with the crook like a staff, seeing him, the goats that had got the other blankets wrapped them around themselves too. The minions took their seats upon the dogs and stayed behind the herd as Briar led the way home, just as they would have done if the Brays were still regular goats.

Briar's little farm was well away from any settlements, it was just her, her farm, her livestock, including the goats which had become brays, and recently the browns, right in the middle of vast areas of fields and pastures. Briar was very private, mostly from being shunned by anyone who wasn't a blood relative or covered in fur or scales, so she took comfort in knowing that she was the only human for miles around, give or take the odd bandit. But Briar was still young and therefore prone to have a young person's view of the world that if you left everyone else alone, they would leave you alone.

She failed to count the people who seemed to make it their business to push their wart and spot covered noses into your life. Briar didn't know that she had several of these sort of people watching her as she led the brays, the browns and the dogs back to her farmstead.

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End transmission for now.

Remember, keep the plot ideas coming and I'll see what I can do.

If you liked it, leave a review. The minions keep coming back with bloody entrails stuck to their weapons and it's making a mess of my carpets.


	3. Sympathy for the Devil

**CHAPTER EDITED****: Chapter has been checked for spelling mistakes and plot mishaps.**

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This chapter has graphic scenes of torture and blood so discretion is advised. I've also upped the rating to M.

I'm still open to plot ideas so keep them coming.

I own nothing to do with the Overlord games, I only made Briar and the brays and if Code Masters or Triumph Studios want to use them, they can.

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**Legacy of the Overlord**

Chapter Three: Sympathy for the Devil

By the end of the day Briar was able to finish cleaning the round house and tidying the farm, with her washing hung on a line between her house and a tree, her washing pot empty of water and back in its place beside her fire hearth, the carpets beaten free from dust and she had even found time to sharpened her sword. The farm was where she had the most trouble, or should have been more trouble, but with help from the browns and the new brays lifting and moving most her the equipment she used about her little farm it hadn't taken very long to put everything back in place, some of the brays had even scrubbed the old cart and empty pails.

It was going to take a bit of getting use to, seeing her goats like they were now and Briar still wasn't sure if she was going to wake up soon. It all felt like a weird dream.

But in her typical fashion, Briar was going to have to get use to this. Her whole life had depended on finding a way around the problems that got in her way. So, after sorting the farm and her little house she had taken the female brays aside, into the barn, to figure out just how she was meant to milk them. Much to the humour of the browns who were standing on Brum's back watching.

"Mistress stays 'abreast' of things!" she heard Gash chuckle.

"Chicken breasts, I hear of! But goaty breasts! That new!" Pummel added.

"Mistress create new fad. Men take special order!" The minions laughed hard before a well aimed rusty bucket crashed into them, causing them to tumble off the donkey and land hard on the ground, the bucket landed on Rasp's head. The minions quickly ran out of the barn, Rasp running into several obstacles as he forgot to take the bucket off his head. Brum just continued eating the straw.

Unlike the children of Spree, Briar was quite a good aim.

The young shepherdess returned to the task at hand, finding it much easier to concentrate with the browns no longer distracting her and she was able to find a simple, easy way to milk the bray females. If they sat between her legs with their backs to her she was able to handle them without giving them any discomfort. By the time she had milked eight females she had mastered a technique. Sally was the next female she had to milk, the black coated female's tail was wagging somewhat and she made sure not to prod Briar accidentally with her small horns as she sat back against the young shepherd. The other females had either gone back to the herd or were still waiting for their turn to get milked, talking amongst themselves as they waited, some of the females had kids running around the barn.

She had nine full pails by the time she decided to get everyone settled for the night and get some sleep for herself. She would turn these pails into cheese since it was still a good few weeks before she could go on another trade day and milk wouldn't keep that long, even if it stayed in the small cold store she had under her barn. But the pails could wait until tomorrow before she began the process of turning it to cheese; considering what had happened earlier that morning, she had done enough for today, no longer able to control the yawns that forced themselves from her throat. She watched the rest of the bray females leave before taking the pails to her cold store and making sure everything was secure safely in the barn. The brays may have been the ones that had taken her blankets and crook, but that didn't mean a rustler or thief wouldn't come to her little farm hoping to get lucky. Whatever lucky streak a thief may have had would run out when Grimjaw and his pack got their fangs into him.

The brays had certainly known what they were doing when they took her things, but they had been the unknown 'thing' when it came to Briar puzzling over what to do and that was why the dogs had not been agitated. They still saw the brays as goats so did not do anything to stop the brays from taking her things; they hadn't known any better, they were just dogs after all. Even Briar hadn't noticed anything wrong with the goats before the browns had used them to get her to the ruins... which was another thing, she still had to punish those long-eared sods for tricking her. But that could wait as well.

She was sure that whatever had happened to the brays to make them change had occurred at those ruins when she used magic for the first time in her life.

Patting Brum on his rump as she past by the laid-back donkey she went into the chill of the night outside her barn, it was a clear sky tonight and she wouldn't be surprised if there was a frost in the morning... her eyes glanced over her shoulder to look at the goat pen, she wondered how the brays would fair in the cold. As goats they did fine, but what was their fur like now? Was bray fleece more sparse or finer than a goat's? Briar walked up the the fence and look in the dim light to try and spot Ramrod. He was still wearing her red blanket and carrying her old crook so he was easy to see, she could see several other brays were wearing the blankets they had carried back.

"Ramrod." She saw her top billy as he rushed towards her; his shepherd had need of him.

"Yes, kind Herder?" he asked "What is needed of me?"

"Take the herd into the barn, I think there's going to be a cold snap," she explained "I don't need you dying because your transformation means you can't handle the cold well anymore." She left him to gather the herd and she went to her house, trying to suppress another yawn. She watched Ramrod and several other billies open the barn door, taking a head count on the herd as they entered into the relatively warmer environment of the wooden structure; they even let the minions come back into the barn from their hiding places after Briar had thrown the bucket at them before closing the barn again.

Briar at last laid on her bed, stretched and fell into a restful, dreamless sleep. Grimjaw, Fang, Dark Lace, Jagger, Rip Tooth and Bubbles came to lay in a heap at the front door about half an hour later.

------ LoO ------

Briar's prediction turned out to be correct. Come the morning when she stepped out of her house and into the faint light of early dawn the ground was shimmering with a thin layer of delicate ice; it covered the farm and the pastures beyond. There was a definite fall in temperature, causing the dogs to puff out their fur and the minions to hug their goat-skin tunics and trousers closer to their bodies when they waited to warm up in the dawn sun. The browns mounted the dogs' backs and spurred them into a run, beginning a new patrol and cooing things into their ears like "Good Doggy" and "Giddy up".

"Bad morning, Mistress." they greeted as they rushed by her to check behind her little round house for any intruders. She didn't get the chance to give them a greeting in return, they were gone before she could open her mouth to say anything. Briar walked at a steady pace, she was still feeling a little tired, having just woken up, and she needed to warm up. The brays greeted her as she entered the barn, bowing before returning to their conversations, and she stopped to look around at the bray herd. They had found more of her blankets and some old pelts. All of the females now wore something, the males must have given them the blankets first before going through something for themselves, many of the young males and the aging males weren't wearing anything. Briar watched as two males began to fight over one of the remaining pelts; they first started off with their new fists, but when neither backed down they got down on their four limbs and charged each other, their horns coming together with a clash. The bray's legs were noticeably short on their bodies, but it allowed them to retain a quadrupedal stance which allowed them to graze and run at speed. It also meant that they blended in with other livestock much better than standing on just two legs. Ramrod was still wearing the red blanket they had taken for the short-lived idol and was still carrying her old crook. She approached her top billy, who was talking with some of the other brays, she could just make out some conversation about the brown minions.

"Ramrod, take the herd out and graze." Briar ordered, it was time to get the brays eating. The females wouldn't make milk on empty stomachs and none of them would grow good fleeces or horn castings on empty air.

She heard her top billy gather the brays and take them outside, their hooves tapping the ground as Briar went to her cold store to get some pails of milk and buttermilk to begin making cheese. She could hear the browns and the dogs catching up with the herd, following the procession as it went to the pastures.

Alone, Briar was able to concentrate on the task she had given herself for the morning and so she began by taking a couple of pails from her cold store and returning to her house, coming back for several jugs of buttermilk; she could see her herd in the distance to the North as she returned to her house. Briar decided she'd make soft cheese today and that started by heating the milk over a fire. Taking some pans and lighting a fire in her simple stove she put some of the milk into them and collected more of the equipment she needed, cheese cloth and some vinegar which would make the warm milk curdle.

She heard a noise outside. Someone tripping over the rusty pails she kept by her house, she stopped to listen. Perhaps it was one of the browns on the dogs looking for a place to have a quick rest, but they knew the farm and the old pails, they wouldn't crash into them. Her eyes began to glow; ever since her first bit of magic both her eyes would now glow. Briar picked up her sword and opened her front door to investigate; there wasn't a brown minion, a dog, a bray, there wasn't anything else just seemingly nothing, but the pails were scattered from their place on the Southern wall of the round house. She circled around and found nothing, but she knew something was here and kept her sword ready. "Who's here? Show yourself or I'll call my dogs on you." she gave a fair warning but still nothing made itself known.

The glow in her eyes exploded and she turned around just in time to see the hilt of a sword make contact with the side of her head, she felt herself falling but she couldn't remember hitting the ground; she blacked out from the force of the blow.

------ LoO ------

Grim always allowed Pummel to ride on his back, even though the large wolf hybrid preferred Rasp as a rider. It made Pummel happy that the head dog of Mistress Briar's pack liked him enough to let him ride about all day. But you didn't need to be on his back to see when he became agitated. Even the dim-witted browns could tell Grim was unhappy about something. His ears twitching and twirling about his head, listening for something.

"What wrong, Grimmy?" Pummel asked feeling the large dog's fur stand on end. Grimjaw growled and snarled in response, then almost sent his brown minion rider flying off when he broke into a sudden sprint back towards the farm. Bubbles and Jagger, along with their riders, Gash and Gloob, followed when they saw Pummel fighting to stay on the frantic alpha dog. When they reached the farm and the round house, they could all feel something was wrong. It was way too quiet but the air felt electrified, like something had come and gone quickly.

"Mistress?" Gloob asked at the open door of the small house, but no one answered. He could see that pans of milk on the stove were boiling over. Since he knew that Briar would never forgive them if they let her home burn down he got off Jagger and carefully took the pans off the heat. He didn't try to put out the fire; he wasn't a daft Red after all, he'd just burn himself.

They heard something going on at the entrance to the farm and Gloob barely had time to remount Jagger before Grim tore off to investigate, his two pack mates catching up shortly. When they reached a group of bushes they could use to watch the commotion at the entrance without being seen.

What they saw, at first they didn't understand, there were five well armed Spree men, probably a part of the village's militia, at the farm entrance handling something fairly cumbersome and heavy. They each had horses but there was also a sixth which they were trying to get the heavy object onto. The object was in a rough sewn sack and as the men became more and more frustrated trying to get it on the horse, the more and more rough they handled it.

The minions and the dogs couldn't see what the object was because of the sack so they didn't realize it was Briar until the rough way they threw her onto the back of the horse loosened the sack and revealed her face to them.

Briar was out cold with her hands tied behind her back and the side of her young face near her right eye was developing a deep angry bruise; they had hit her, they had hit her with enough force to not only knock her out but also to cause a substantial nosebleed. Blood was still dripping freely and was beginning to stain the Chestnut fur on the side of the horse she was now being tethered to.

As one, minions and dogs went charging, teeth gnashing and saliva flying from their mouths, roaring and howling and screaming bloody murder as they broke from the cover of the bushes, the minions raised their their clubs above their heads in the anticipation of smashing them down on someone elses. They were going to get their mistress back and rip these Spree idiots apart, then dance around in the bloody remains.

"Her demons have found us!" one of the men cried, terrified by the sight. The minion's eyes glowing a dangerous amber as the wolf-riding browns quickly gained ground.

"Quick! Get on the horses!" Only three of them were able to scramble onto horses before the minions and their mounts fell upon them. One was able to gallop away with the horse Briar was on. Since Pummel had leapt off Grimjaw to deliver a blow to one of the two men who had not been fast enough to get away, the ever-loyal herd-dog went dashing in pursuit of his master. But they were gone, taking Briar with them, when his legs began to burn and with his tongue lolling from his mouth in heavy pants he stopped chasing the scent of his master. He howled in the direction the horses went, a deep, great howl that made the leaves and blades of green grass shiver, perhaps his master would whistle for him. But she remained silent.

Grimjaw turned and returned to the battle, his attacks full of viciousness. His sad howl had drawn the other dogs and their minion riders, the herd of brays watched from a short distance as the minions battered the men with clubs and the dogs tore into them with their teeth, unknowing of what had been taken from them. Bubbles wrapped her fangs tightly around one man's neck, he struggled to get her off, gasping and gurgling but then he went still.

"Stop, please! No more!" the remaining man cried, trying to use his bloody, ripped hands to stop the blows and fang-filled bites.

"Why you take the Mistress?" Gloob demanded, the minions had stopped hitting him with their clubs but the dogs still held him down with their teeth sunk deep into his flesh. When the Spree militiaman wasn't quick enough to give Gloob an answer the minion struck him with his club. "WHY!"

"We were told to bring her to Crosskeys! We saw her with you and the summoned goat demons! We wanted the reward the Empire is handing out for witches."

"Crosskeys Town. I know Crosskeys Town! We go get the Mistress back!" Rasp said jumping up and down with his bloody club.

"Kill him!" With Gash's order the militiaman's groans and moans of pain and terrified screams were silenced with Grimjaw's jaws clamped around his neck. The huge dog fulfilling his namesake. Like his comrade, the militiaman struggled, fighting the strong dog for air, but eventually went limp.

"Browns?" the minions turned to face Ramrod approaching them, his long, furry face a picture of sheer confusion. "What is happening? Where is the Shepherd? When we heard the howl of Great Grimjaw and screaming we searched but could not find our Shepherd."

"Nasty Spree men take Mistress to Crosskeys." Pummel told the red cloaked bray.

"They gonna give her to Shinnies." Gash explained "Shinnies will kill Mistress Briar because she has glowy eyes!" The bray herd gave a collective gasp and began to panic, what would they do without their Purpose, without the the kind Shepherd. Ramrod baaed loudly and the herd became quiet, he had been their leader and guide, he would know what to do.

"Did one of you say he knew the way to this town they took the Shepherd to?" Rasp raised his hands and nodded his head vigorously.

"We go save Mistress Briar for the Overlord." Rasp explained to the bray leader. "We hurry to Crosskeys!" Ramrod turned back to the herd as the browns began to strip the militiamen of their clothes, weapons and what little armour they were wearing.

"Brays! We follow the Brown Helpers, they will guide us to our Shepherd!" the herd cheered. "Our Shepherd, the Purpose for being brays, is in danger. She needs help, if needed we must fight for her! Gravid females and young kids stay, we will return to you with our Shepherd!" Their cheers turned to shouts and calls of vengeance and when the browns spurred the dogs onwards with Rasp leading the way the brays charged after them, some picking up makeshift staffs and clubs along the way. Like Ramrod had told them, only the females who were pregnant or had kids stayed behind; the graceful Dark Lace was left to guard them.

------ LoO -----

The town of Crosskeys had once been a little village very similar to Spree; the original settlement had been a place for woodcutters, farmers and hunters to ply their trade and raise their families in the relative safety offered by the main roads across the Kingdom of Belmna. One road leading to Heaven's Peak along the East, the North road leading to the dwarf kingdom of Ironstep, where they carved their settlements from the very mountains and the South road which led to the Great Harbor. Those roads had brought trade with them and trade had made Crosskeys very wealthy. The various mayors that had governed the town had added defensive walls, watch towers and numerous gates to protect it. Crosskeys was fast becoming a city of power, especially now that the Empire had a strong hand in the town's running; it was also becoming a place authority. It was why Briar only delivered orders to the town and didn't stay to do trade.

The sun was starting to drop in the sky when the browns and the brays reached the town limits and they hid in a small wooded area where they could see the town and get an idea of how to enter without being noticed. The midday sun was washing the high walls and towers with orange light and still the town was abuzz with activity. The bray herd took the chance to eat the vegetation offered by the small wood, taking their four-legged stance to blend in more while Ramrod talked with the browns, he was their collective voice, he would know what was best for them. The browns and the bray leader were watching the town with scrutiny, they couldn't go in through the gates, they would get stopped by the guards even if they were disguised as children.

The browns had stolen some clothes from farms on the way to the town and they were now wearing children's clothes, even Ramrod and some of the other brays had donned the outfits, using hoods and thick scarfs to disguise their faces and, in the case of Ramrod and one other large bray male called Gus, their curving horns. The other disguised brays would stay with the herd, pretending to be shepherds. The four minions, two brays and Grimjaw were sat in some bushes looking at the high walls of Crosskeys Town trying to see where they could get inside.

"We get into town there." Rasp explained, pointing to a hole in the defensive wall where dirty water was pouring out into a man-made trench which guided the mucky water into a small creek running alongside the town.

"Where do we begin searching once we're inside?" Ramrod asked, his robe was hidden under all of the clothes he wore to hide himself.

"Small town, just look." Gloob said. "We find Mistress soon." With that said, Gloob left the bushes, quickly followed by the disguised party and Grimjaw. They ran across the open ground to reach the sewer outlet where Pummel was the first to crawl into the simple tunnel, paying no attention to the smell, nothing smelt as bad as the Greens. It wasn't long until they reached their exit, a small hole where the townsfolk just dumped waste into it to be carried outside to the creek. One by one the browns and two brays climbed out not bothering to try and clear their stolen clothes from the muck and dirt, only Grimjaw shook himself off.

Several townsfolk had seen them clamber out of the sewer system and they stared at them in astonishment, as what they thought were children hurried off down the street, taking their huge dog with them.

"Come on Doggy. We go home now." Pummel cooed to Grimjaw in the best child's voice he could muster.

"Yeah, come on. Walkies." Gloob added, just for good measure. Their sensitive hearing was able to pick up the noise of a large crowd from the center of the town, they were shouting insults and the group of seven followed the noise. They were met by a wall of standing bodies gathered around the great pillar in the town square.

This pillar was called Hounfen's Pillar, after a local hero who was born in Crosskeys and was said to have slayed a dragon; after many years it had become a site to punish criminals, most commonly flogging or stoning while the accused was tied around the wide pillar; as such, the thick column was often refereed to as Punishment's Pillar. As the minions, brays and the large dog looked for someway to get to the front of the crowd a crack rent the air and the crowd cheered loudly as a sharp scream of agony followed the thunderous snap. It was a flogging.

For the first time the browns heard Grimjaw whimper.

The small group found a way to the front of the crowd by crawling under some carts which held firewood and some trade goods. Yet another resonating crack and another scream, more cheering. From under the carts the minions and brays were able to see into the town square and the happenings at Punishment's Pillar... they also found Briar.

Her hands were tied with rope around the wide pillar, forced to hug the cold stone it was built from, her shirt had been ripped off revealing her young skin which was now marred by numerous open wounds on her back. Her beautiful, long black locks had been cut short to stay off her back, out of the way of the whip. The executioner brought the whip back and then snapped it forwards again.

Another resonating crack, another scream tore from Briar's mouth, more cheering.

Her face was still stained from her nosebleed, only her tears were slowly clearing the old blood, and her right eye was now covered by a deep, dark bruise. Both of Briar's eyes were glowing fiercely, the normal blue had turned almost white from the young girl's fear and pain.

Another resonating crack, another scream, another cheer.

From their hiding place the browns and brays could only watch, stricken as the cruel whip, now drench with crimson liquid, again met Briar's back, leaving another wound in its wake. All the while, the crowd just roared for more of the thirteen year old's blood, even though a large, glowing red puddle had already collected under Briar's feet and her trousers saturated with it. The glow came from the vast quantity of mana in it; again, something the minions had never seen before.

Another crack, another scream, another cheer.

Gash was not very good at counting, no brown was, but he could count up to ten and could tally. He tallied four lots of ten before the executioner stopped and the crowd booed and threw insults at the black clad, hooded man for not giving more, Briar did not even have the fortune of passing out. The magic in her veins gave her clarity most of the time, she had felt every stroke of the whip and the burning agony left by its caresses. She would've eventually collapsed, but that would take more than just flogging.

She was still alive, however, and for the minions and brays that meant they could still save her. But not here, not with all these people and guards. The disguised party once again maneuvered themselves to try and follow their Mistress as two more executioners untied her hands and dragged her away from the pillar; they had Empire guards as escorts. The minions, brays and the dog once again took cover, this time between some stacked barrels, trying to plan a way to follow their mistress without drawing the attention of the Shiny guards.

"I'm very surprised she survived," came a noble, but sly voice from above them "the lesser magic users tend to die after just thirty lashes." The minions looked up through the wooden planks that made a balcony jut out from the town hall where the barrels had been stacked and where two important Empire men had watched the flogging. "She is obviously more than just a simple summoner or witch, she has the potential to be something far more dangerous." The speaker was a somewhat tall man with a comically small nose, deep set, beady eyes and was dressed in fine Empire robes. This man was Atlas Minimus, the governor's adviser in Mellow Hills.

"Have some of the guards and executioners take her to the old Halfling Slave Camp near that village, Spree." This man was an ex-soldier who had recently retired called Remus Maxmillion, a strong, well built man, regally dressed and with a commanding voice. "Have her 'Torn Quartered'." He ordered "If she is as dangerous as you say, I will not let her go to the Arena. She will die tonight."

"As you say, Remus." The governors head suddenly came peering over the edge of the balcony, his eyes scrutinizing the empty spaces between the barrels of wine he had ordered for the festivities tonight. He could have sworn to the Gods something had been crawling around down there, only half satisfied that everything was well he entered the town hall with his adviser in tow.

The minions had been long gone. When they had heard that they would take her to the old Halfling slave camp they had scuttled back to the sewer hole they had climbed out of, hurrying to get back to the bray herd waiting for them outside. The minions and the bray leader had been explaining to the herd where they had to go when a beam of light suddenly pierced the sky from the West.

Someone had activated the arcane gateway near Briar's farm, the ground pulsed under their feet, only magical creatures could feel this pulse. But while the brays were not sure what this meant, the browns' faces split wide with gleeful grins as a name formed from their lips.

"Minion Master Gnarl, he comes."

------ LoO -----

She couldn't describe the agony, it was something she had never known before and therefore had nothing to compare it to. Briar had been in a daze, the loss of blood making her light-headed and unable to focus on anything for more than a few seconds. She could feel herself going numb... well, she was either going numb or she was in so much pain that her exhausted brain couldn't process it all after the flogging. They had taken her back to the prison cell afterward but had immediately thrown her onto the back of a horse and were now leading her somewhere. She didn't know where, she had overheard the guards talking about the Halflings but that was as much as she could make out from their faint voices.

She was sure that wherever they were taking her to, it would be the last place she would see.

What a way to die. Thirteen years old, orphaned, stripped to her waist and covered in her own blood; far from what she wanted but she guessed she should be surprised that this hadn't happened sooner. A magical creature living in an Empire influenced land... it just wasn't heard of. And the people of Spree, Crosskeys and all the other settlements in Mellow Hills, well Briar wouldn't be around long enough to see what would happen to them when the raiders and bandits tribes realized she was no longer around. A smile tugged her lips.

They deserved everything the bandits did to them.

Underneath her she felt the horse carrying her stop and someone grab her ankles pulling her from the animal's back they just let her drop to the ground, eliciting a agonized groan from her as they turned her over onto her back she cried out. Someone kick her face and through her faint ears she heard what sounded like "Shut up!", she couldn't be sure though. The new pain brought her to her senses for a while and she was aware that they were securing ropes to her arms and legs. Wrists, elbow, ankles and knees, a guard wrapped a gag over her mouth and then helped the others tie the other ends of the ropes to four strong, black horses. Even in her current mental state, Briar could figure out what was going to happen. Tears stung at her eyes.

She hoped her mother was still good with a needle and thread.

She saw four black hooded executioners mount the four horses and heard a soldier shout an order. The four executioners dug their heels into the sides of the horses and the ropes went taut.

With the gag, Briar's screams were little more than groans, so that the horses didn't get spooked and panic. Briar thought the flogging was bad, she had no idea what she was talking about as the horses tried to rip her apart, her eyes began to glow again and the blood that still seeped from her fresh whippings took on a red glow as its formed small pools underneath her hovering body. There was a sickening crunch and Briar screamed into the gag as one of her shoulder joints was pulled from its socket, tears appeared on her skin where the ropes pulled and burned her flesh. The soldiers just screamed at the executioners to spur the horses harder. Her other shoulder gave in and was followed by her hips.

Briar could see darkness creep into the edges of her vision, at last, she was finally passing out, at last she wouldn't be able to feel anything.

A dark figure with glowing amber eyes flashed through her mind, his armored hand and glowing gauntlet stretched towards her, she tried stretching back, but something was holding back her hands she couldn't reach for him. Hundreds of pairs of glowing eyes appeared behind him and then charged forwards screaming. The browns came swarming.

A jolt ended her hallucination and the darkness receded a little, enough for her to see one horse and its executioner swamped by small brown creatures with large ears and strange goat-like people charge at the few soldiers, their heads lowered, their horns smashing into shields. A flash of something metallic and one of her legs fell to the ground with an arm, the ropes were being cut.

Things became quiet and the darkness returned to her vision, the brown creatures and goats gathered round her and then parted. A light gave her something to focus on and a voice could just be heard in her ears as the light got nearer.

"That was close. Your magic was the only thing that kept you together long enough for us to reach you. It was only thing stopping you from becoming five neat little chunks of meat." A grey, ragged face became focused but the darkness seeped in closer. "We will take you away from here, you certainly have spirit enough to be a Mistress..."

Briar went limp, her pain momentarily, was over.

------ LoO ------

Mellow Hills was celebrating. Spree village more than the rest. The villagers listened heartily and drank deeply as the three brave militiamen who had freed them from their fear of the young Witch told their story. They told of how they faced a legion of demons and felhounds before two of their number died from her powerful spells and enchantments. There was talk about rounding up a mob and burning her farm to the ground, but at the moment no one seemed to care too much, the drink was flowing freely; all being paid for from the gold the three militiamen had earned handing the witch over to the Empire forces.

The Happy Mule Inn was built as a pub, where most of Spree seemed to be celebrating and individual rooms which could be hired by travelers to sleep for the night.

There was also the private areas for the Innkeeper. The barmaids were handling the revelers alone tonight. While all of Mellow Hills was dancing, drinking and singing, in his private living quarters of the Happy Mule, Old Archie sat in sad, sombre silence. Young Briar had met with a fate worse than death.

Throughout all of her short life, Archie had known Briar. He had been one of the first people to actually see her after her mother and aunt had come to the Happy Mule asking if there were any properties where they could come to some agreement with; Briar had just been a few days old then. That was when Archie had handed over the deeds to a small farm that no one wanted with the agreement if her mother and aunt could turn it back into a functioning farm, she could keep it and somehow her mother had turned it into a goat farm. The Spree mayor could still remember this one day, when Briar had still been a baby, when she had smiled at him. A big, gorgeous open-mouthed baby smile. Even then her eye could glow rather brightly, but after that one act of absolute trust Archie didn't give a damn about her being magical. The aging Ruborian man was proud to be someone Briar felt she could trust, especially with the way everyone else had treated her: like some insect that needed crushing.

He had been the one she had come to when her mother past away from the aftermath of the magical plague; she had crept into the village late one night and tapped at one of Archie's windows until he had opened the door for her. She had been in tears and Archie, knowing that her mother had been very sick, guessed why the young girl had come to him. She had spent the night sleeping in one of his chairs while he had watched over her, her tears didn't stop all night.

He had arranged for her mother's body to be cremated and had helped Briar to create a little memorial near where they scattered the ashes in a little creek near the farm.

Archie turned his head to the window where a little Briar had tapped on to get his attention that sad day when her mother died, as if expecting to see her face there. He continued to sit in sad, sombre silence, broken only by his quiet, heart-rending sobs.

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Poor Archie, I was hoping to shed some light on the reasons why Archie had remained one of Briar's closet allies even though Mellow Hills was probably one of the worst hit areas during the Cataclysm.

What's going to happen now, well you'll have to wait for the next chapters to find out.


	4. First Impressions

**CHAPTER EDITED****: Chapter has been checked for spelling mistakes and plot mishaps.**

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Well here you are, chapter four. What does the future hold for poor Briar? Don't ask me I'd be ruining my own story.

I own nothing to do with the Overlord games, I only made Briar and the brays and if Code Masters or Triumph Studios want to use them, they can

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**Legacy of the Overlord**

Chapter Four: First Impressions

It was peaceful here, she didn't know where she was but she didn't care anymore, she had her eyes closed and was being held tightly to a warm body. Briar thought she had forgotten the smell of her mother's hair. But with the soft red strands tickling her nose she realized she hadn't hadn't forgotten at all, the scent was just as she remembered when her mother was with her at their farm, in their home, enjoying a well deserved hug and rest after a long day shepherding the, back then, smaller goat herd around the pastures of Mellow Hills. Things had been so much simpler, when it had just been them, when Briar smiled daily for her mother.

She was older now and as such she didn't fit her mother's lap as well as she used to, but that didn't matter. Her worries had long melted away and her eyes were closed as she rested her head on her mother's warm shoulder, her hands fisted in the cloth of her mother's dress. Her mother's own hands stroking her back and caressing her long black hair. "Briar, time to get back to work."

"No, a couple more minutes. Please." the young girl begged. She knew her mother was probably smiling but her hands stopped stroking her hair and back.

"Come on, we can rest later. More cuddles then."

"No, there won't." Her daughter said "You've been dead for five years, this is just me having some sort of pain induced hallucination. If not then it's that moment when I die, I was getting pulled apart by horses after all." The young girl explained calmly. Her mother's smile faded and Briar felt her sigh heavily.

"Yes, you are probably right." Her mother agreed and she placed a kiss on her daughter's cheek; Briar felt the wetness of her mother's tears. "But you can't spend you're entire time on my lap, your father wouldn't have minded but you're a little too big for me."

"Don't know who Father was, you never told me."

"I had good reasons not to tell you."

"I know." There was a pause and Briar's grip on her mother's dress loosened. "He's dead too, isn't he?"

"He may as well be."

"... I don't feel good."

"Like you said, you were getting pulled apart by horses, you didn't think you'd get out of that without feeling something, did you?" Her mother stroked her back one final time. "Let me go now." Briar tried to get a better hold on her mother's dress, but she couldn't, the fabric was slipping through her fingers. "Briar, don't be stubborn." There was choking in her mother's voice and Briar felt her eyes sting with tears.

"I miss you."

"I do too. Make sure you go to bed at a reasonable time and keep your clothes clean. Make sure those dogs are kept flea clear." Briar finally let go of her mother, darkness covered her sight and the scent of her mother's hair faded. "I love you, Baby." It was the last she heard of her mother's voice and she wished she could have said something more, but their was a pain in her throat and a dull ache wrapped itself around her body.

------ LoO ------

Briar's blue, dimly glowing eyes opened to an unfamiliar chamber room... cave, was a more appropriate word for it; sections of pillars and what looked worryingly like supporting structures had crumbled and fallen to the black stone floor and many of the vast room's decorative statues were rendered unrecognizable.

Briar was lying on her front so that her burning back was not pressed against anything, she was resting on something which felt like a bed and she could see that she was lying on thick fabric, or something similar like fur. It certainly didn't feel like her hay and straw bed back home.

The young shepherdess dared not move, she knew the throbbing ache was there for a reason and pulling on the healing muscles would be painful, she couldn't feel her arms or legs anyway, the extremities had somehow been numbed; she could see her left arm stretched out to the side, blocking some of her vision across the decrepit, echoing chamber. If she still had one arm it was hopeful she still had the other, with luck she would still have her legs too.

She was alone in the large ruined chamber with its crumbling statues of strange minions with webbed toes and fins coming out of their heads, one of the only statues to retain some detail. _"Blues."_ Briar found herself thinking, the browns had told her little about them other than the fact they could swim and cast a sort of healing magic.

As her aches began to get worse the wounded girl heard tapping, at first thinking it was something preparing to fall down in the chamber she searched with her eyes gaining enough courage to move her neck just a few millimeters. She immediately regretted it as her back exploded in pain causing her to snap her eyes shut to try and do something to ease the pain.

"You're finally awake I see." came a voice. Opening her eyes she saw a minion dressed in a black robe with some sort of glowing stone dangling above his head. The light she had seen at her execution, this was the creature that had spoken to her before she black out. The tapping sound turned out to be the claws on his feet hitting the stone floor as he walked. Behind him was another minion carrying a large scythe, he too was wearing a black robe and Briar could just make out large webbed feet flopping onto the ground as he walked towards her with the aged grey minion. "We were very worried you know, you were asleep for three weeks as your body healed and your heart beat got very slow."

"... who..." she tried to say something more but her throat was bone dry and just like everywhere else on her body, hurt like hell when she used it.

"Um?... Oh, introductions, of course." the grey minion chastised himself. His companion was looking over Briar after he had clambered up onto the surface she was lying on. "I am Gnarl, Minion Master and Devoted Servant of Darkness. The blue minion who is checking to see if the tendons in arm are reattaching themselves is Minion Mortis."

Briar had been wondering what the shadowy minion was doing when he began lifting her outstretched arm and letting it drop; she groaned each time he touched it, her throat was too dry to scream.

"Life is strong with this one, Gnarl. Strange magic, strong magic, it flows in her veins. Death is frightened of her." Mortis said in a droning, bored voice. He rested his scythe against his shoulder and picked up her hand, examining every finger as if it would suddenly explode; given the trouble she had been through recently Briar wouldn't be surprised if they did. "Arcane scars..." it seemed as if the old purple tinted Blue minion could see something she and Gnarl couldn't, her hand looked normal to her as he let it drop again.

If she could have moved she'd have wrapped her hands around his throat.

"Arcane powers? Are you sure Mortis." Gnarl said, sounding excited, the shadowy Blue nodded. "Perhaps Gloob and the others were right when they said she should be a Mistress." Gnarl stroked his chin before he returned his attention back to Briar. "Gloob, Rasp, Torn, Pummel, Gash and Clod, who they say was trampled by one of those wretched unicorns in Evernight, were a search party I sent to Mellow Hills to look for clues on the whereabouts of our next Overlord. I honestly did not think they'd find anything there, but they've told me a lot about you, young Briar." The old minion explained taking a seat on a small pile of rubble beside whatever she was using as a bed. "Exceptional sword skills, feared by bandit tribes, capable of giving orders to wolfs, a herd of goat-men prepared to do anything for you... "

"The skins of five corrupt unicorns, their twisted horns, plenty of goat sinew and her own blood concentrated with arcane mana." Mortis added, once again in his bored voice. Gnarl went silent and a strange atmosphere descended. That obviously meant something, but whatever it was, it was lost on Briar. The unicorn skins had been trophies from her jaunts into Evernight Forest to find lost goats, she took their twisting horns because she thought they looked nice. Although she did have a feeling you could do something with them, but she had no idea what.

"Yes... " the grey minion commented, glaring at the back of the old blue "but still, very impressive, Briar." Gnarl continued, trying to pretend Mortis' words had not shaken him as much as they had. Briar was too weak to say anything about it and just listened to the Minion Master as he explained how Torn had found him and the other minions as they discovered the hidden entrance to the old Minion Burrows, which was the place she was in now. Torn had told Gnarl about a female magic user who powered the old arcane gate to send him to the frozen land of Nordberg. "We gathered what minions we could and followed him back to your farm to find the remaining minions and your 'brays' in a panic. You were being taken to the Slave Camp to be executed, we reached you just in time before the mana in your bloodstream ran out, if we had been just a few seconds longer then your limbs would've been strewn about the camp in an awful mess." Gnarl concluded, all the while Mortis had pulled the thin blanket from her body so he could smear something onto the whippings ailing her back. It was then she realized she was naked. "Only a select few of the Nether Gates work on their own power. We had to use our feet and the old Arcane Gates to reach your farm. That was why we took so long to get back; we had to get back to the Arcane Gate Torn used."

"That is done now." Mortis said as he returned a now empty jar to the confines of his robe. He pulled the light blanket back over Briar and jumped down to the ground. "I will return to the Minion Barracks and prepare the next treatment." The dark blue minion turned to face Briar again. Her blue eyes stared deep into his sunken, dark ones for a minute and Briar felt some sort of connection, some sort of understanding come from the blue minion. He bowed deeply, the tip of his scythe touching the ground. "You are healing well... young Mistress." and he left.

"I wonder what's got into him," Gnarl said out loud "He never once bowed to an Overlord."

"... water... " Briar managed to croak out. The old minion gave a wide grin and pulled out a hip flask from his robes, unscrewing the cap he placed it against Briar's dried lips.

"Wondered when you would ask." Briar coughed and spluttered when the water hit the back of her throat but thirst wouldn't let her take her lips from the cap until Gnarl took it away. He screwed the cap back and set the flask on the rubble he had been sitting on. "I will send up Gloob and the others, they've been asking non-stop about you. But, if you don't mind young Mistress, don't ask them to get the flask for you. Try and get up and get it yourself when next you get thirsty."

It was a good challenge. Briar knew she should have felt a little insulted, here she was healing from getting pulled in four opposite directions by horses and this aging grey minion had just told her to get her own drink. But Briar couldn't help but give the old minion a grin as he left.

A few minutes later a thundering sound came from the entrance Gnarl had left from and in piled the four browns, now reunited with Torn (who was wearing his tunic and trousers she had made), some of her brays led by Ramrod and her six strong dog pack, tails wagging like propellers. The flask would not be touched for some days.

------ LoO ------

The Minion Barracks were a vast place, a huge open cavern dug and built solely for the purpose of housing the four minion hives and their graveyard where Mortis tended the dead souls in the River Styx. And it was to see Mortis that Gnarl had ventured into the Barracks after sending the minions and the few brays that hung around in the throne room up to see Briar.

In his life, Gnarl had met many Mistresses, all of whom had helped their Overlord conquer the land as well as perform certain 'other' things for their respective Lord, but few had left any impression on _him_. Young Briar wasn't even old enough to be a proper Mistress (not that age had ever been a problem with some Overlords) and he already knew he wouldn't be forgetting her for some time. He liked females that approved of a bit of bloodshed, even better, one who was good at causing it herself. But still, he needed to talk with Mortis about what they should do with Briar once she was healed; if she should stay with the minion horde or be returned to a town somewhere to be collected later, when the Overlord began his campaign. There were daily Leader meeting, where all four of the Minion Leaders would meet up to discuss the days events and what actions to take later regarding them. Being the leader of the browns, Gnarl would go where ever the browns would go, but poor Mortis had been separated from the blues as the hives went their separate ways when they fled from the old Tower, they had no idea what had happened to the air-headed healers, being the most magic-orientated of the minion tribes they had felt most lost and confused without an Overlord to guide them. Mortis had told him that the Blues had probably returned to the Moist Hollows in Heaven's Peak, but when Gnarl had sent scouts there to see if they had it turned out the Blues had not taken up residence there again. The other two leaders were probably still with their hives... wherever their hives were.

Gnarl saw several of the strange bray creatures with the browns as he walked to the Minion Graveyard. They were looking around where the others hives would be placed once they were found and the browns were explaining about what the hives were and telling them about the Five Minion Commandments. These brays likely hadn't heard that their 'Shepherd', as they called Briar, had woken yet and had remained with the browns in the Barracks. Surprisingly the brays and the browns got on considerable well considering that if they were still normal goats the browns would be slaughtering them; Mistress Briar's herd or not, it was what a brown minion did best.

The Graveyard was alongside the River Styx, the River of Death, which flowed through the great cavern the Barracks was built in. An impressive waterfall marked the place where the Blue hive would be put when it was found and Mortis was standing beside the altar where newborn minions would be sacrificed for their life force to bring the more advanced fighters back from the dead, his dark robe soaked by the river's spray and his scythe glistening. He was paying no heed to the grey donkey that had followed them from Briar's farmstead which was feed on some winter grasses the brays had brought down from the surface. "I thought I would find you here, Mortis. Why did you bow to Briar?" the Minion Master asked.

"Have you not told me many times that I should bow to the Master?" the purple tinted Blue leader said with his bored, droning voice sounding even more bored and droning, he was examining the flow in the river as it rushed past him, just inches from his feet.

"Well... yes," Gnarl admitted "but Briar still isn't a Mistress and we still have not found the Overlord yet." Mortis turned to face Gnarl and despite the amber glow you could easily see the irritation in Mortis' eyes.

"Gnarl, there is writing in bold minion runes and written in seal blood on these obsidian walls but you, our Minion Master, refuse to read the message." Gnarl's posture went hard as anger crept into his old mind, when he was still a youngster and just about to crack something's head open with a club... or a sword... or a mace or... anything that was on hand.

"Then read it for me Mortis, what does this 'writing' say?"

"You are smart for a brown, even when you were younger... you do not need me to read for you."

"Some unicorn skins and impressive arcane magics do not make an Overlord, Mortis. There can be no female Overlord."

"Of course there can be no female Overlord," Mortis agreed with his bored voice "... 'Lord' is a male title."

"Do not twist my words, Blue!" Gnarl growled "You may be a leader but that won't stop me from pulling your eyes out through your nose!" Mortis just shook his head, rolled his eyes and said

"I fear neither death nor decay Gnarl, Death will embrace me. I am its eternal servant, it will eat me and spit back, it will ravaged my body with disease and crush all my bones but it will take me violently... as it takes all minions violently. But Briar..." Mortis paused as a strange look came to his glowing amber eyes, Gnarl had never seen it before. "It crawls and shies away from her, it approaches but does not advance to her, it's creeping black mass strokes her with its tendrils like a lover as she sleeps but flees when she stirs. It stalks her, waiting for a chance to cut her throat and drink deep of her life, but it cannot help the shivering fear when Briar stares back at it, her eyes alight with the arcane blue glow." Mortis gripped his scythe tighter and even Gnarl couldn't help but feel something seeing the normally unshakable Blue Master shivering. "It fears her, it fears her for what she will become... I am just stating to you what you should know Old Brown."

"It just means she has the possibility of becoming a powerful magic user, all the more reason why we should have her as a Mistress." Gnarl explained. Mortis sighed before talking again.

"Maddened unicorn skins stitched together with goat sinew; goats, very good creatures at absorbing magic... stitched with a unicorn-horn needle tainted by arcane blood, then cut, trimmed and tidied by a unicorn-horn knife again tainted. Lastly; the most important part, staining the unicorn cloak with arcane blood; the power of such an object is terrifying to behold."

A Cloak of Shadows was an item worth its weight in innocent blood... three hundredfold. The cloak made you invulnerable to spells and enchantments from enemies but it strengthened your own, the woulds from normal weapons closed and healed the second they were cleaved to the flesh and only the strongest of magical weapons could destroy it, those forged in mythrill or arcanium with powerful enchantments placed upon them. The older the cloak got, the more potent it became. Only one Cloak of Shadows existed at any one time, if two were created the vast power of the objects would gradually tear the world apart.

A Cloak of Shadows would work only for its maker and its maker's bloodline; the maker of the first Cloak of Shadows was an exceptionally strong sorceress who was also the mother to the very first Overlord. The cloaks would serve no other, being handed down through families passing through hundred of Overlord eras and into the next.

"Let me guess," Gnarl began "you found a needle and a knife made from unicorn horn in that pitiful house of hers, didn't you?"

"Already stained with her blood along with the mad unicorn skins and plenty of goat sinew, old goat sinews, the strongest goat sinews. Briar has the means to create a Cloak of Shadows, the creation of it and the things and tools that she needs are committed to her instincts, not her memory. She knows how to make a Shadow Cloak instinctively, that is more than just coincidence Gnarl."

"Anyone can make a unicorn skin cloak." the Minion Master said, growing tired from the discussion "Needles and simple knifes made from unicorn horn never need to be sharpened and never break, Briar would be interested in having something she wouldn't have to replace guessing from the way she had to live and she has plenty of goats to get sinew from. She uses it more like thread, mending her old clothes and fixing stuff around her pitiful farm. A terrible waste yes, but far from coincidence Mortis. As of the Shadow Cloak, the main power comes from soaking the cloak in the arcane blood of the maker and I doubt the thought of soaking a revoltingly beautiful article of clothing in her own blood would appeal very much to Briar."

"... It does not matter for now, we shall see." Mortis said twisting his scythe around. "I think that once the young Mistress heals we should take her to Nordberg Town to be with other people. Minions are hardly company for a young Mistress to grow up around." Gnarl nodded his head, glad that Mortis was finally dropping the argument.

"Yes, I agree. We do not want a repeat of Mistress Dara." The two minion leaders shuddered at the memory of Mistress Dara as some nearby browns who had been listening in on their conversation cheered at the mention of the ancient Mistress; the brays that had been with them just staring at each other in confusion.

------ LoO ------

Three days past since she awoke and Briar was getting restless from boredom and thirst. The flask was still on the rubble Gnarl had put it on and the young girl had taken up his challenge; she was beginning to wonder if that had been a good idea but it was too late to wonder now, too late to go back on it, besides no one was with her at this moment in time. She had told Ramrod and her five browns not to come and see her too early, her only company at the moment were her dog pack, sleeping in a heap on the end of the stone bed.

She had feeling other than pain in her limbs now and her back was healing well but that didn't mean she was ready to get back on her feet. Briar wriggled her fingers to test her body; they didn't hurt anymore and so she began to slowly move her arms bringing them into her body, the muscles caught some still tender whippings on her back but she knew that it would mostly hurt when she got to her feet, she hadn't used her legs for several weeks. She pushed herself to a position on her hands and knees, feeling her knees give a dull ache in protest to her actions, the joints was encircled by a dull orange-brown bruise where the executioners had tied the ropes to her and had tried to pull her apart, her elbows, wrists, knees and ankles all bore these bruises, at least they were healing quick and the bruise on her face had healed days ago.

The girl turned herself over and rested as her toes touched the floor as she sat on the edge of the falling stone bed she had been confined to by her pain and braced herself before she tried to stand. Her legs didn't hold her first time and sent her face first to the obsidian floor. She groaned as her legs sent angry daggers of pain up her body. But Briar was thirsty and she _would_ get that flask. As Grim, Dark Lace and Fang climbed down from the bed and licked her face her eyes were glowing again, her magic taking away the stinging edge to her pain allowing her to think clearly.

The young girl tried several times to find her footing and after more painful falls she finally found it, her body radiating with a dull ache and Briar's young mind wondered if this was what it felt like to be old. Archie had always complained of aches and pains in his knees as the years got on and some of the older Spree bastards were bent double by pains in their backs, but the little thought was short-lived... like most of Briar's little, unimportant thoughts.

She finally reached the flask Gnarl had put down to torture her with into standing up, unscrewing the cap and taking a long drink. Briar wondered if water had always tasted this good, but again, didn't give the unimportant little thought another mind after that. Realizing she was still naked, Briar returned to her crumbled stone bed and wrapped the thin blanket around her, she went to sweep her long hair out from under the nape but then remembered her hair had been cut short by the executioners. It would grow back.

Her dogs encircled her and waited their turns for strokes and ear-rubs before following Briar who kept the flask with her as she made for the entrance to the Private Quarters, wincing and groaning as she began the decent down the black stairs.

------ LoO ------

The minions and brays had become very close and Mortis had discovered that some of the brays were able to cast magical enchantments, he had explained to Gnarl and Briar that it had something to do with them being a magical mutation of goats, which were very good at absorbing the magical energy that was all around them. Now that the brays were showing a use not just as retainers and servants to Mistress Briar, but also a possibility to be used on the battlefield to give helpful 'buffs' to the minions they had gained a whole new respect in the minion society. The brays weren't as fight orientated as the browns so while they could do some damage with a good head butt or a gouging horn they had turned out to be a rather tough little race.

Each day they made a three and a half hour trek up to the surface and the freezing Nordberg snows where they would spend up to four hours eating the long winter grasses and even climbing trees to reach the tough leaves before making the long trek back down to the Netherworld, the grey donkey who he discovered was called Brum, always went with them. Even Gnarl had to respect the kind of audacity it took to face the freezing weather. He'd rather eat a Rotten Rat Sandwich (a delicacy which had been created by the Greens, they had stomachs which could handle such food) before willingly going to the frozen surface.

It was actually dinner that Gnarl and a humorous minion with strange dark skin, called Quaver, were talking about. Quaver was a rare minion, one that was born 'somewhat' smarter than the others. Gnarl for example, had just been a regular brown when he was born, he had earned his brains surviving countless battles before earning his title as Minion Master. Quaver's dark skin had shown he was different and in minion society, different wasn't always seen as a good thing unless you knew how to use a blunt instrument; though Quaver would fight if the need was great, but he much preferred being the Tower's Jester... and singing crude songs and limericks, he was also a good cook... as far as a minion was concerned anyway.

"Well, what about Poison Pod Stewed Ferrets?" Gnarl asked

"Poison pods? Where will we find poison pods in Nordberg?" Quaver asked incredulously.

"Didn't we have any in storage?"

"Used the last of them in the Boar Brain Surprise last week." Gnarl slapped himself, he'd forgotten about that. He had been looking forward to a nice ferret.

"The Young Mistress walks!" he heard a brown shout from one of the balconies overlooking the throne room and Netherworld Gate. The Minion Master turned to see Briar slowly coming down the stairs wrapped in the thin blanket and being escorted by her dog pack; she used the heads of minions and brays which had approached to assist her to steady herself on her aching knees. Ramrod was at her side by the time she reached the last obsidian stair near the stone throne. Like everything else, the throne was barely holding itself together, but that didn't stop Briar from taking a seat on it. Unseen by anyone, the two yellow and blue globes on nearby columns began to glow very faintly.

"It is good to see you've got the use of your limbs back." Gnarl said, coming to stand in front of the seated Mistress. "I did wonder if I should have left you some clothes, but I thought you would need more time for your tendons and muscles to heal, Mistress."

"I was thirsty."

"I'm glad that the flask worked."

"You're finally down here with us peons, Mistress, with us is where you belong." Quaver said taking a hold of Briar's hand and giving it a lick. Minion's didn't understand the concept of kissing. "Even tottering on sore knees and using minions as walking sticks you make a most foreboding dark presence for one so little. Much better than laying on that bed, it gave you no justice." Briar and Quaver had met a couple of days ago when Gnarl had been busy with some sort of accident in the Minion Barracks and had told Quaver to take the young mistress something to eat; just some boiled pork, but Briar had eaten it like it was the best cuts of venison or rabbit available. Quaver's dirty limericks had got Briar smiling and of course, anyone who laughed at his limericks was an instant hit with the black minion.

"So I am staying here then, until you find your Overlord?" Briar asked Gnarl.

"Well it turns out things are a little more complicated down here than we thought, Briar." the Minion Master said "I guess now is as good a time as any to explain the plan. Me and Mortis think it is best if you go to live in Nordberg Town, young mistress." Briar stared at the old minion in confusion.

"I thought I was meant to stay here and wait for the Overlord."

"Oh, don't worry, we'll return for you once we have found our Master, but for now it is probably safer for you to return to civilization. Your brays are already drawing attention to the entrance on the surface and the magic in this place is unstable until it chooses a Master. That incident in the Barracks was caused by the instability of the magic keeping this place working."

"I thought you said there was no magic here?" Briar commented.

"Precisely, that's the problem." Gnarl said "It's using the massed magic energy created by the browns, and probably to an extent, you and your brays, but even so it's just not enough to keep this place fully operational."

"But what about the townsfolk? Will they not attack the Shepherd when they discover her eyes?" Ramrod asked, making sure not to stand on any of the dogs' tails as they laid around the throne, Grimjaw at Briar's feet.

"Not if your 'Shepherd' plays her cards right." Gnarl said with an almost mischievous grin. "Norbergians are not like those peasants from Mellow Hills or for that matter, anywhere in the Kingdom of Belmna. While they do persecute magic users they pity people who were made magical by accidents. You know, like... falling into an Elven Moon Pool or getting poked in the eye by a gnome..."

"... or getting skewered on the horn of a unicorn." Briar added, touching a round scar on her thigh through the fabric of her makeshift robe. A souvenir from her first unicorn confrontation.

"Exactly, young Mistress. And you can say that same unicorn terrorized your goats which made them... like that." Gnarl added, pointing to Ramrod. "If things turn sour, we'll be quick to bring you back to the Netherworld." With that kind of reassurance Briar couldn't argue any further, so she sighed and sat back against the throne.

Her aches and pains ebbed away suddenly and she felt secure in this broken, dark place, her eyes glowing. Her fingers traced the slight engravings in the surface of the broken throne which she sat on, perhaps her eyes were deceiving her but she swore she could see little arcs of blue light jumping from the runes to her fingers.

"When do I leave?"

"... Par... pardon, Mistress?" Gnarl stuttered out.

"When do I have to go to the town?"

"Not until you're fully healed..." Gnarl came closer and took hold of her hand, stopping her from watching the blue arcs that he couldn't see. "Mistress, that throne is a ruin. Perhaps you should get off it before it crumbles entirely. Quaver, get the Mistress a chair from the old Library." He had to push Quaver to get the black minion's eyes off of the two globes which had brightened when Briar sat properly in the throne and began playing with the engraved runes.

Gnarl was glad Briar had agreed to go to Nordberg. She would not be able to activate anymore Overlord artifacts in the Netherworld. It would give him time to look around his own library to try and find out what sort of magic Briar had that it copied the Overlord's power.

Down in the Barracks and the Minion Graveyard, Mortis smiled as he felt the Netherworld's arcane magical forces slow and become stable for the first time since they had found it.

For a brief moment before Quaver returned with the chair, Briar was where she belonged... sitting on the throne.

------ LoO ------

A month had passed so quickly and so much had happened: the brays had embraced the ideals of shamanism and were now adept at enchanting minions and their weapons, bray sacrifices to the Shepherd kept their beliefs going and their brown allies enjoyed the meat and milk, they especially enjoyed watching the sacrifices as the the victims' throats were cut, spilling blood everywhere. Quaver had expanded his retinue of dishes thanks to the brays. Gnarl was getting closer to understanding what Briar's magic might be but still thought it better for her to leave the Netherworld until the Overlord was found. Mortis had tried many times to sway Gnarl's mind, but not even the actions of the Netherworld itself seemed to deter the Minion Master from his solid, steadfast belief that Briar could not possibly be _the _Overlord.

The goodbyes to the minions and the Netherworld had been quick and without tears, but the minions did seem a bit forlorn in losing the brays and the young Mistress and Briar had to admit she would miss them, especially Torn, Gloob, Rasp, Gash and Pummel.

The virgin snow crunched loudly under Brum's hooves, who Briar was riding, and the hooves of the brays, who had adopted their quadrupedal stance as they kept pace with the Shepherd through the snow covered land, following a map Gnarl had made for her to reach Nordberg. Like this, and wearing old torn robes and stitched-together pelts they looked like normal goats dressed to withstand the cold, even the newborn kids had something wrapped around them; Sally's kid was wearing a bit of pelt from an old male bray, one of the sacrificial victims back in the Netherworld. Briar, herself was dressed in some of her old clothes that the minions had taken from her farm when they fled with her, but even with several layers and a new red hood and cloak the young girl could still feel the biting cold. Rabbits and winter hares returned to their warrens and holes as she and her herd walked by, she even saw what looked like a couple of gnomes waving at her at one time; her sword, which the minions had also taken with them, was strapped to her side should they come across any of the tundra's more hostile residents. Briar stopped and dismounted, stretching to remove the kinks she had got from riding Brum for too long and the disguised bray herd and her dogs stopped as well while Briar could get her bearings and look to the map. As Grim and the pack patrolled around them, Ramrod, still wearing her old red blanket sidled up to the girl and gave a quick look around to make sure there were no other humans about.

"Kind Shepherd?" Briar hummed in response to her lead bray to show she was listening. "I... believe we have already come this way already... several times." Briar sighed.

"Yes, I thought so too." Briar turned the map upside down to see if she was reading it wrong, but it made no difference. "I would have thought following a map would be easy, considering Gnarl and the minions have spent nine years in this god-forsaken waste. I mean there's nothing but frozen trees and seals here!" The young shepherdess, who had turned fourteen in the Netherworld, sat down on a fallen tree and threw the map away. "We'd be better off using the dogs to sniff Nordberg out; if the townsfolk are anything like the ones at Crosskeys or Spree it shouldn't take them long." Ramrod stood up and stretched. His stretching got Briar's attention and she suddenly stood quickly, spooking Ramrod who returned to all-fours. "We go that way." Briar was pointing to something behind him and looking, the bray leader could see a faint, thin pillar of smoke in the white sky. "Looks like a camp fire."

"Brays! We are moving again!" Ramrod called to the herd which immediately got back into a group behind the remounted shepherd and began to walk once more. Grimjaw came to walk at Brum's side as the rest of the dogs lingered around the herd's flanks and rear, guarding from all quarters.

The camp turned out to be empty, but a fire was going strong and fresh footprints showed there had been a lot of activity just moments ago, tracks which seemed to have been made by several people running off in a northern direction. There were a few personal items to be found in the strange round houses which, to Briar's amazement, turned out to be made from snow and there were drying seal skins and hunting gear still dotted around the small hunter's camp. The dogs were picking something up in the air and it was causing their fur to stand on end.

Briar jumped and the herd froze when a scream rent the air not too far away and the dogs began to growl loudly.

"Ramrod, keep the brays here! Fang, Jagger, Lace! Guard!" Briar ordered the three dogs who returned to the bray herd with Ramrod. "Grim, Rip Tooth, Bubbles! Come." Briar left Brum with the herd and ran off in the direction of the screaming, following the footprints and her three dogs followed, barking and snarling at her heels, eager for a fight.

------ LoO ------

Her legs were starting to tire and her lungs were burning from the cold air as she tried to escape the beast's anger. She couldn't exactly say it was an unprovoked attacked, she had killed and skinned its youngster after all but she had no idea it would be so relentless in chasing her. At the young age of thirteen Kelda prided herself in being Nordberg's youngest, and some would say, best hunter. But even she could not predict how an animal would react and the baby walrus was such a rare creature in these parts she just couldn't resist in trying to get it. Now her young legs were running themselves into the ground as she tried to reach shore and get off the ice sheets.

She had seen her father and some of the other Nordberg hunters try and stop the huge mother walrus, but the enraged beast had shaken off the spears and harpoons like they were nothing, swatting away the veteran hunters with a huge strong flipper, sending them into rocks and boulders and knocking them out. The walrus had gone under the ice, but she knew that she wouldn't be safe until she reached solid ground so the walrus could not break the ice she was running on and so send her to a freezing, watery grave. Her heart was pounding as she finally reached the shore and stopped to breathe, the walrus would not be able to break the ice from under her now. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that a walrus could survive on land.

She had not gone into the shore far enough, and the young, red headed huntress was sent flying as the ice close to her erupted and out came the vengeful, bellowing mother walrus, her great tusks hanging from her mouth looking like great pikes, they were certainly strong enough to gouge the young hunter that had killed her offspring, her huge blubbery body and thick flippers came to land inches away from her quarry.

Kelda screamed, shrill and loud, but her father and the other hunters had all been knocked out by the walrus mother. There was no one to save her and her ankle had been twisted when the walrus attacked from the ice. She was able to dodge out of the way of the mother's tusks, but she was getting tired again and the walrus seemed to be energized by her anger.

The walrus reared up above her and for a split second Kelda knew she was dead, the walrus hadn't brought its tusks down on he yet, but she knew she was dead. There was a sudden crackling sound and then the mother walruses' face burst into flames.

The great beast cried out in agony and its bulk landed away from Kelda, she heard growling and turned to see what she thought were the largest wolves she had ever seen jump over her prone form and leap onto the walrus attacking her face and back, causing the sea mammal to flay about blindly since the fire had burned her eyes. Kelda saw a figure rush past her wearing a read hood, bearing a sword and with their eyes aglow. A magic user.

A magic user had saved her life. After everything her father and the other adults had told her about magic users, one was actually saving her. The red hooded figure reached the the huge walrus, avoiding its tusks and flippers and swiping at it with their sword in graceful arcs and slashes, moving like they were in some deadly dance. The figure shouted an order to the wolves, a young feminine voice, and to Kelda's surprise the wolves obeyed. Leaping off the beast and getting away a short distance, one of them just inches from her and she watched as the figure got onto the walrus mother's back, reached her monstrous head and plunged her sword into the top of its skull.

The beast went still and fell heavily to the side, blood staining the ice and and snow. The female magic user came to stand in front of her looking like a heroic statue to Kelda's eyes. For a few moments they just stared, Kelda in wide eyed wonderment, the stranger's expression unreadable, her eyes glowing with a beautiful blue light. Finally, Kelda found her voice,

"Thank you."

"... You're welcome... "

"I'm Kelda."

"Briar."

Briar seemed to hesitate for a second before offering Kelda her hand; her glowing eyes were gradually returning to normal. Kelda reached out for her, behind Briar and the slayed walrus, she could she her limping father and several hunters hurrying to them.

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The first time Briar meets Kelda, and what a first meeting. I wanted Briar to make a big impression on Kelda and what better impression than saving her from a hulking walrus.

Why a walrus? Have you seen how massive those things are! I would never think of killing one however, but Briar doesn't give a damn.

Well this is it. I have a good idea of what I'm going to do for the next few chapters, but please, keep your plot ideas coming. As I keep saying, even if I don't use any of them I might turn them into little one-shot stories to keep me writing.


	5. The Empire Returns

I have gone back over the last four chapters and checked spelling and plot sections so hopefully I won't have to go back to them. I haven't checked this chapter yet because it will allow me to make room for any plot mistakes I've made and correct them accordingly. Don't worry I'll inform you when I do.

I own nothing to do with the Overlord games, I only made Briar and the brays and if Code Masters or Triumph Studios want to use them, they can

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**Legacy of the Overlord**

Chapter Five: The Empire Returns

Nordberg was a large town very similar to Crosskeys (which had not done Briar's confidence any good) but unlike Crosskeys it was mostly home to hunters, since there was little opportunity for growing crops in this mainly freezing land; that part of a Nordbergians' diet was filled mostly with wild growing cold-climate berries and other such plants. They were always looking for a new way to expand their diet... and that's where Briar and her bray herd could help.

It had turned out Kelda's father was the Chieftain of Nordberg Town and as thanks for saving his daughter he agreed for Briar to become a resident of the town immediately, the fact that she could raise goats for meat and milk had sweetened the deal for the Chief, especially when Briar had explained that it could also be traded for quite a price with other settlements.

After three weeks of becoming an official resident of the town and gaining a whole new wardrobe to cope with the chill, the Nordbergians still thought the brays as goats; considering how they had treated her when she told them the sap story about being skewered by a unicorn and then getting persecuted by the Glorious Empire, she thought it better not to tell them a story to cover for the brays. Everyone, _everyone_, had insisted on buying her a drink in the pub... she couldn't remember much after her fifth milk stout, which _they _said wasn't very strong and while it was the weakest drink in Nordberg it turned out to be stronger than the stout Old Archie served at the Happy Mule. Kelda said she had passed out and after Briar woke up thinking she was back at the flogging in Crosskeys she had vowed never to touch an alcoholic drink again. The less she thought about the hospitality of the Empire, the better.

Briar had taken temporary residence with Kelda and her family (her mother and father) while her herd and dogs had been given a large pen and an old barn nearby and were proving to be a hit with the townsfolk; they all thought Briar had somehow tamed wolves and the brays ( still disguised as goats wearing the old clothes to fend off the cold) were something new that the children could pet. Word of Briar's magic soon found its way across the town but most people remained civil towards her once they heard the unicorn story, as well as how she saved Kelda from the walrus.

The people were so different from the villagers of Spree, or the townsfolk from Crosskeys, and Briar found it differcult to stop looking over her shoulder as she walked around the town in case a lynch mob was following her. And wherever she went Kelda went with her; since Briar had started living with her family the young red head had barely left Briar's side. It was the same in the early mornings when Briar got ready to take the herd around the pathways leading to and from the town so the herd could eat.

The sun could only be seen as a small cut of brightening sky at the horizon as Briar and Kelda walked through the fresh snow covering the streets and alleys through Nordberg Town to reach the pen and stable that the brays were at. Grimjaw met them half-way and accompanied them for the remainder of the walk. Rustlers didn't seem to exist in Nordberg, Briar had put that down to the fact that there weren't many livestock herds to rustle from, the main annoyance Nordberg had were Unpermitted hunters. Unpermitted hunters were basically poachers and they were rife in this frozen land, but even in this aspect of Nordbergian life Briar had found some support because every night she gave three of her dogs to Nordberg Town's anti-poaching squad and the few days that had seen the dogs go on these little trips with the twelve strong men, had seen them catch more than ten unpermitted hunters. Several times Briar had gone with them to keep her skills sharp and shown the men of Nordberg herself how true Kelda's tales of her deadly moves were.

Last night she had given the anti-poacher squad Dark Lace, Jagger and Bubbles, who the squad normally didn't like to take because she had a tendency to bite the throats of the poachers, they preferred to bring them back alive to be tried at court. That left Fang, Grimjaw and Rip Tooth to guard the brays in case anyone did decide to take up rustling, as well as to alert the brays if anyone was coming so they could disguise themselves properly. "Yeti's are getting rarer around these parts, you know." Kelda said as she explained everything there was to know on the wildlife around the town and the frozen coast. "Father says it has something to do with the poachers. Although the yetis are very tough they don't really like fighting, you see, so they just move on to other areas if humans begin to attack them. But wendigos!" Kelda made a huffing noise which Briar took to be a sign that meant these wendigos were something to be avoided. "Wendigos are a whole other game, they come from the same family as the yetis but will always fight back if humans attack them. Well, that's what Father and the other hunters say. They have long shaggy fur which the veteran hunters say makes them blind and long ram-like horns, their arms are like tree trunks and they make even a yeti look like a wimp. You know that fur pelt hanging on the wall behind Father's Chieftain chair in the town hall? And that big horned skull on the Elder's table?"

Briar nodded. As a friend to the Chieftain family of Nordberg she was a frequent visitor to the town hall and had seen the great fur pelt and the large skull displaying Nordberg's heraldry.

"Well they're trophies from an alpha male wendigo."

Briar tried to imagine how many men must have died to get that pelt. The young shepherdess was glad that she hadn't run into a wendigo while trying to find Nordberg Town when she left the Netherworld. The grey pelt that was hung up behind the Chieftain's chair must have come from a creature at least fifteen feet tall, she found it hard thinking of the strength a creature like that must of had. And the horns and teeth on that skull looked very savage.

"Are... are there any wendigos around here?" Briar asked as she and Kelda reached the goat pen and stables, Briar dusting off snow from her new furs.

"There have been sightings but they tend to stay much further North where humans aren't likely to travel and no hunter has reported tracking one for many years." Kelda said open the stable door with Briar. "Well... unless the wendigo found them and they weren't quick enough to escape."

_"Hopefully, that's one less thing to worry about."_ Briar found herself thinking along with a big exhale of relieved breath.

Many of the brays were still asleep but a few had woken up and were eating some hay given to Briar by the Chief as another thanks for saving his only child. Brum was off to the side, still sleeping on his feet. Briar was quickly finding it very rewarding to be the hero even though Kelda seemed to be making it a personal mission to make Briar a social animal after the magic user's exile for much of her life.

It was a lot to deal with; going from social outcast that everyone was begging to have slaughtered to a hero that saved the life of the Chief's daughter. Briar wasn't finding it hard adjusting to life in Nordberg, she was very good at adjusting thanks to being alone, but it didn't feel right that Kelda was always shadowing her. Briar was a private creature by her very nature, even her mother and aunt had known that, they had said her father had been the same. Kelda was a young girl always looking to get into a conversation while Briar was more of a one to just walk on by and the magic user was confused as why Kelda had taken such an interest in her well being. Okay, so it probably had a lot to do with saving her from that walrus creature but still, their personalities were like chalk and cheese and Briar was starting to tire with having Kelda follow her around. She knew it was completely unreasonable, she saw Kelda as a little sister, but she was quickly finding her annoying most days when she just wanted to sit with her herd and dogs, company that wouldn't talk to her (or at least not unless she talked to them first). But it wasn't all bad, Kelda was quite eager to help her savior with caring for her herd and the red head had turned out to be somewhat of a natural at milking brays.

Since she had no idea about how you were actually meant to milk a goat Briar was able to say you had to milk them with them sitting between your legs, it really was much more comfortable than trying to milk them as normal and the young huntress was able to show Briar a much more easier and quicker way to skin and carve the meat and preserve the hide and bones.

Briar knew she was being unreasonable when she didn't want Kelda around, but she had been alone for far too long.

It was a while into milking when Kelda asked her next question. "What's flogging?" Briar had known this question would come up eventually. "You mentioned it a couple of times before." Briar wondered if she should tell Kelda the truth. Although there was only a year between them Briar knew she was much more mature, mentally at least, than Kelda. She considered lying, but realized Kelda would know she was lying so that left only one option. She took a deep breath.

"Flogging is a punishment using a whip. They tie you to something, often a stack or something similar... they tied me to a pillar in a town square, and depending on the crime you committed, give you anything from three to forty lashes; sometimes more." Kelda's expression was a mix of horror and utter bewilderment, it was obvious that Nordbergians didn't have any punishment similar to flogging. Briar found herself very grateful for that.

"What was... your crime?" Kelda asked as she picked up a new pail.

"Being magical."

"Being magical?" Briar nodded "What sort of whip do they use?"

"Well, it's no cattle whip. Executioner whips are made to cause a lot more... damage. With the most amount of pain."

"Executioner?" Briar wondered if she should have waited before telling Kelda. The red-head was clutching the pail to her chest in a death grip.

"It's excruciating, most people bleed to death after twenty or thirty lashes and I only survived because of the magic in my blood."

"No. They couldn't do that to you!" Kelda didn't seem to want to believe it however, for some reason she didn't like the idea of Briar getting hurt. Again, something Briar found hard to accept, no one had _not_ wanted to see her hurt since her mother. "No human could do that to _you_, magic or not."

"They did." Briar turned back to milking the bray, she didn't want anyone caring for her... she didn't want to care for anyone.

"You're wrong, no one can be _that _cruel! Not to you." Light exploded from Briar's eyes and she turned her back to Kelda so fast it spooked the bray she had been milking and the young huntress. She pulled up the back of her shirt, revealing her back.

She heard Kelda gasp or something that sounded like a suppressed scream, the milk pail Kelda had been holding clattered to the ground.

"Don't you ever tell me I am wrong! Don't you dare!" Briar's patience had finally snapped. The brays hunkered down into the straw which made up their bedding and the three dogs whined and whimpered as they shied away, tails between their legs. "No one, not even you, tells me I'm wrong when I know I'm right! No one, Kelda! I don't care if you are the spoiled brat of a chief!" Briar's eyes were overpowering the light from the two lanterns they had brought with them to see their way through the dark streets and the blue light was casting eerie shadows. "You don't know what it's like! You were never pelted with rocks or had to scrape a living from a bunch of arseholes that called you insults under their breath. You didn't have to watch your aunt leave to try and find another place to call home because raiders attacked daily. You never had to watch your mother die because no one gave a damn about the mother of a magical user and you weren't the one that Empire guards beat senseless, than tied to a pillar and had to listen to _every_ cheer and feel _every_ whipping as they delivered their so-called justice! I did nothing wrong to those bastards! I was the one that repelled the bandit attacks! And they were _cheering_!" She was shaking from fury and she was beginning to get cold, but she couldn't get control of her fingers in her rage to let the back of her shirt drop. "You were not the one they nearly pulled apart with horses! Don't you ever tell _me _I am wrong! Not when I am right!"

Briar had said her piece and for many, many long seconds everything went quiet and Briar began to wonder if Kelda had left, there were two entrances into the barn, both of them behind her. She just sat there, unable to move or let go of her shirt, she didn't care about the cold now, for the first time she just couldn't care about what happened now. She jumped when she felt small fingers tentatively touch the healed skin on her back and trace the scars left by the whip. Briar didn't stop Kelda when the young huntress wrapped her arms around her chest, covering her cold, scarred back with her body. Briar could hear Kelda's soft sniffs and tears, together with her own.

Eight years of carefully concealed emotions felt wonderful after being smashed into the cold Nordberg ground and left to freeze in its icy winds.

Briar and Kelda would be inseparable and Briar would once again smile daily, only this time for Kelda instead of her mother. She told the huntress everything. The truth about the brays, about her magic, the minions, the Burrows, the Empire, Mellow Hills and the Kingdom of Belmna. And for the first time in many years she had could finally say the names of her much beloved mother and her aunt.

Rose, her mother, and Velvet, her much loved aunt.

------ LoO ------

A year and a bit later

Midwinter's Eve was perhaps the best festival Briar knew but it was also the only festival that Briar had any fond memories of since she had arrived at the town just in time to see last years festival and fireworks, now it had come around once again much to her delight, and the delight of everyone else especially under the age of seventeen. Briar was fifteen and Kelda fourteen, so they were still well within the age capacity of getting _fairly_ excited about tonight's festival. Kelda was just much more confident and capable on expressing her excitement than Briar was. It was getting late; the festival would be starting soon and she and Kelda had been tasked with collecting up the children to bring them to the festival in the town square where the decorated Midwinter's Tree was lit and where everyone would be watching the fireworks later.

The two girls and Grimjaw were walking to the town outskirts to gather up the Bowtee twins, Lucy and Chris, the Lefad brothers, Hans and Kyle and the Smithie girl, Sophie. They were having a snowball fight with some other children which made the two girls sent to collect them happy, it meant they could get back to the square quicker... well that's what they thought. The children had other ideas.

"Kelda! Briar! Play with us! Play with us!" the Bowtee twins cried rushing the two teens. Briar sighed and rolled her eyes under her hood, even though she had no reason to hide her eyes anymore it was a habit she was finding hard to break, besides it helped keep her warm in the cold weather.

"We haven't got time, we'll be late if you play for too long." Briar said as she took hold of Lucy's hand, Kelda went to gather up the other children who were building snowmen.

"Oh, but Briar, we haven't finished our snowball fight."

"You can start again tomorrow, it's not like you'll run out of snow." Kelda came back to and the two teens watched the younger children carry on with their game. They both had grins as they watched the kids. Kelda took hold of Briar's arm and rested her head on the taller girl shoulder.

"Briar?" Kelda said, sounding strangely hesitant.

Briar hummed in response to show she was listening.

"I've been meaning to tell you something for some time. But its a bit difficult to say."

"Just say it." It the only advice Briar could give her until she knew more.

"You think it's that easy?"

"I promise I won't shout, if it makes you feel better."

"Okay." Kelda said, she had not let go of her arm or removed her head from Briar's shoulder. "I... I think I like you." That was something Briar had not been expecting and it took her a few seconds to process its meaning. She turned to look at the top of Kelda's red hair. She looked around to see if the children were listening, then seeing that they weren't (they were too busy starting up another snowball fight) she whispered into young huntresses ear.

"We'll talk later, okay. After the festival in the bray's stable." Kelda nodded, but couldn't bring herself to speak.

Briar was then distracted by the tingling behind her eyes which signaled her eyes were staring to glow dimly and a second later she knew why. A snowball hit her on her shoulder as she went to help Lenin button up his coat, turning to look the shepherdess saw Hans and Kyle giggling with Kelda as Hans, the younger of the two brothers, made a new snowball. "Right, we'll fight to the fort; than we go to the festival." Briar said making her own snowball. An outbreak of laughter and suddenly everyone was rushing to make new snowballs and begin a new war as Briar and Kelda came under attack from the collection of kids. Grimjaw, realizing this was all just fun and games began to intercept some of the snowballs being aimed at his master, the big hybrid's tail wagging.

Halfway along the route when the fight began attracting more children Briar took a quick head-count. She didn't remember there being this many children in Nordberg, the child population seemed to have doubled overnight... and some of the new kids seemed to have very strange ways of getting dressed. But she was broken from her thoughts when another snowball hit her and she and Kelda began a hard push to get the children to move on, their plan worked and the children moved on to the snow wall they had made to guard the fort she, Kelda and the Nordbergian children had made at the top of a small hill overlooking a large pond and the town. Some of the new children had taken her and Kelda's side and with their help the two teens and Grim were able to get past the wall causing the children to take guard in the fort, specially decorated for Midwinter.

"Surrender! Or face the frozen hand of the Yeti Lords!" Kelda warned playfully, laughter dancing in her green eyes the entire time. Briar watched as Grim began licking the face of one of the children who had taken their side and went wide eyed in surprise when she saw several pairs of glowing amber eyes looking at her. Looking closely she saw it was her five minions. The rest of the children she then realized were her brays, she saw a bit of Ramrod's robe peeking out from under his child's coat. She grabbed the nearest minion and pulled him away from Kelda and the others.

"Mistress!" The minion said happily.

"Torn?" Briar realized, she couldn't help a small smile spread across her lips.

"Yay, Mistress remembered."

"What are you doing here, have you found your Overlord or something?"

"We find Overlord, yes. Come to take you away now. Back to Minion Burrows." She knew the minions would've come back for her but she had not expected them to be so quick and of course, it had to be tonight. This wasn't what she needed, at least not at the minute, not with Kelda.

"I can't, not until after the festival and once I've talked with Kelda. Stay close by okay."

"Okay, Master."

_"Master? Since when did they start calling me Master?"_ The minion ran back to the snowball fight just as the fort children gave up; they had run out of snowballs and Grimjaw had worked his way inside, thereby meaning Briar's side had won. Briar and Kelda were now able to round up the children (Kelda thinking that the new children were regular children). They returned back to the path leading to Nordberg town singing 'Ring Around Roses' as they went, good spirits were high but Briar was torn between returning to the Browns and staying with Kelda; she'd have to explain to her... truthfully, she didn't really know what Kelda was to her. She cared for her, she cared deeply for her. Once again she had got in too deep. They had to stop at the gate and wait as Nev tried to remember how to open it, at least the cider seemed to be flowing freely... Briar hoped they had non-alcoholic drinks as well. Most of the children ran off to find their parents, some followed Kelda and Briar to the tree in the town square and stayed around the tree. Briar and Kelda looked around the stalls that were selling festival food and drinks. From the alcoholic drinks table it already sounded like the minions and brays were enjoying themselves, drawing a few looks from many adults near the table as well, and when a voice called out to Briar and Kelda they waved at the Chief as he gave them a smile and wave from where the pyrotechnic experts were tending to the rockets for the fireworks display.

------ LoO ------

It was about eleven o'clock when things began to go wrong. Briar's eyes had dimmed out by the time she had realized some of the children at the snowball fight were browns, but this time the tingle was so strong it was hurting her eyes and the glow was so fierce it drew the attention of several stall holders.

"Briar, what's wrong?" Kelda asked worryingly, trying to pry Briar's hands from her face and eyes.

"You okay, Love?" a nearby stall holder asked as several other villagers approached her. Grimjaw growled and snarled, hackles raised when a strange whistling began to sound in the air. A sickening feeling came to Briar's stomach and a horrible chill ran laps up and down her spine. The bell at the top of the Town Hall began to toll, warning of impending danger.

"Everyone get down!" Briar shouted, just as a huge boulder went crashing into the roof of a nearby house, scattering rubble and raining debris down onto the square. People began screaming and running for cover as yet another boulder came whistling through the air to strike another house. Briar dragged Kelda to the cover offered by some rubble with the terrified girl clinging to her arm.

"What is this?" Kelda asked pressing against Briar as yet another boulder smashed into the stone slabs of the town square. Briar felt around her belt and remembered she had left her sword back in the bray stable. If this wasn't an act of nature, and therefore not an act of any god or deity, than that left only one possible event. An attack. Another boulder came crashing only feet away from their hiding place and this time it was Kelda who began to drag Briar to the front wall of the town.

"Kelda! What are you doing? Get somewhere safe!"

"Seeing what's going on." Kelda had always been rather fearless and the past year had seen Briar help the huntress through several injuries because of her curious nature and it took all of Briar's strength to stop the girl getting to the very front of the crowd of adults that had gathered on the wall. Grimjaw's snarls and growls took on a deeper more menacing form and this time Briar joined him in his snarling. She knew those helmets and the style of the armour. The Glorious Empire had come to Nordberg.

"Surrender your magic users Nordberg, so they may be cleansed! In the name of the Glorious Empire and your new Governor Borius!" shouted a somewhat stout soldier in golden armour and red feathers, a general maybe, at the head of a small army surrounding the city. Borius must have been the small, rotund man who stood beside him, a rather ugly looking fellow with an untrustworthy face and slightly crooked teeth. Kelda's father rushed to the front of the crowd and pushed the two girls to the safety behind the adults gathering of adults.

"We have no magic users. We're all just simple hunters, craftsmen!"

"Do not lie! The Sentinels have spoken." the general ordered sharply, bringing attention to two hooded figures, dressed finely and carrying ornate staffs. "Surrender your magic users or watch your town burn and your people die!" Once again the Glorious Empire was taking another home from her, her eyes were still glowing, but she had been hidden from the general by the wall of adults. From a gap between two men she saw the Chief's shoulders slump and he turned to where she was as Briar parted the two men to let her through. The Chief, Kelda's father, was a tall man with red hair that his daughter had inherited, his eyes were dark brown and he wore clothes made from high quality pelts as well as cloth like cotton and wool. He was a good man who had the weight of a town on his shoulders who had made the mistake of growing to love Briar like a second daughter... they never had bothered to find Briar a house of her own.

"Briar, I'm so sorry." It was the first time she had seen the Chief so torn in making a decision. Briar felt selfish, once again she had let herself get too close.

"No! No Father don't. They'll kill her!" Kelda tried to get to Briar but she was restrained by the other adults. Briar didn't have time to react when she felt several pairs of hands grab her and lift her into the air. Grimjaw started biting the legs of one of the men who had taken hold of his master.

"Hey! Put her down! She deserves to meet them at the front gate!" the Chief's order fell on ears deafened by fear, however, and Briar was thrown from the top of Nordberg's defensive walls to land in the snow which was thankfully deep enough to cushion her fall. A thud next to her meant Grimjaw had leapt from the wall to be with his master. She could hear the Chief arguing with the men who had thrown her in their fear. She could hear the army of soldiers march forwards as she stood and dusted herself from the snow. And for a second she wondered if the Empire would flog her again and try to pull her apart with horses, and she wondered if the pain was exactly the way she remembered from her trial in Crosskeys.

"Briar!" the shepherdess looked up to see the face of none other than Kelda looking down at her with her green doe eyes. She must have used the commotion between the men and her father as a distraction so she could peer over the edge. Tears were already freezing to her cheeks.

Briar's eyes were still glowing with intensity and suddenly, those thoughts of excepting another whip fled her mind. They were replaced with something else. The minions had found their Overlord, she could return to the minion burrows and she would help in whatever way was needed to take the lands from the Glorious Empire, force their armies back to their home territories than wipe their civilization from existence. Determination was back with her, she wasn't trapped in by the town walls anymore, if she was out in the world she could always escape. The army marched nearer and boulders were still being catapulted into the town but Briar kept her eyes on Kelda until her father eventually tried to take her from the wall. "No, Briar! You promised we would talk after the festival!"

"We will! It will just be a little bit longer than I thought." It took a few seconds for Kelda to understand what she was saying, but a large grin began to tug at the corners of the lips. Out of the corner of her eyes Briar saw Gloob and the others break cover to join her, free from children's clothes and they were still wearing the pelts she had made them. "Now go and get somewhere safe! I'll be back soon enough!" Kelda watched as her savior fled from the Empire soldiers, stealing a sword from one of them and whistling loudly to the night air, Grimjaw giving a howl. The long since familiar howling of Briar's dog pack answered and somewhere in the town the bray herd smashed out from their barn and charged to their Master's call.

------ LoO ------

The makeshift camp at the top of the path looked like it was used mainly as a place for soldiers to regroup and it had been built in a hurry, they had not thought about the positions of the tents though they had made sure to station a squad of archers on top of a high plateau overlooking the small camp. When Briar and the minions had charged in they had been quick to engage them, the troops not really of much concern to Briar since the minion horde that was now following her was enough to overpower them. The archers, however, were more of a threat and they had already picked off a few minions with their arrows. "Gash! Take some minions and get the archers! Rasp get some others to make sure their no soldiers hiding in the tents!" Briar shouted as she delivered a killing blow to another soldiers, staining the sleeves of her fur coat with the swordsman's blood.

"Come maggots! Master orders!" Gash called and he and a group of minions rushed up to the plateau the archers were on and the minions cheered and raised their clubs and stolen swords and spears. The sound of snapping wood meant Rasp was following his orders too. It was at this time that the bray herd and the rest of the dog pack caught up with them, charging through the small camp and knocking down the remaining soldiers. Briar could see flashes of coloured lights as the bray shaman began to cast their enchantments on the minions and curses on the surviving soldiers. The arrows stopped suddenly and the archers' screams joined with those of the soldiers. With most of the camp soldiers now dead or being battered to death most of the minions now turned to the remaining tents with Rasp taking weapons and armour as they found them, her five minions were reunited with the dogs and took to their backs again (Bubbles was most pleased to have Gash back judging by the amount of slobber on his face) taking the weapons and armour and handing any gold or silver coins the soldiers had with them to Briar who stuffed the coins into her pockets before rounding up the minions and brays and marching on, following the directions the minions gave to the Netherworld.

They crossed a high pass that overlooked an area near the frozen bay where Briar could see the Empire had moored their ships; so that was how the Empire had reached the frozen north. A battalion of Empire soldiers were desperately trying to fight off the biggest wolves she had ever seen, they were not a large a Grim and her other dogs but they were much larger than the wolves found in Evernight Forest near Mellow Hills.

"Look! Wolvies bashin' Shinnies." One of the minions said sticking his head through the gap of the wooden guard fence.

"Yay, go wolvies!" the minions shouted down. To Briar's surprise the wolves did seem to hear the minions and renewed their savage attack on the battalion of soldiers.

"Mistress we should keep moving," Briar heard Ramrod say beside her "The Empire will most likely be following you." He was right and so the young shepherdess roughly pulled the minion back from the fence and ordered them to move on. Her five minions and their mounts in the lead with her. The minions took her further from Nordberg Town and deeper into the wilds, following a path to the frozen coast, but taking a sudden left turn they were forced to halt their progress as the path they should have taken was blocked with boulders and snow. Briar doubted this was the work of the Empire, it looked more like a small landslide.

"Path blocked."

"No worries. Master will find way to break it!" She heard Pummel say. She still wanted to know why they had started calling her Master, but she heard another whistling sound as yet another boulder was aimed at Nordberg. Somewhere to the North of where they were. She thought of Kelda being crushed by the huge stone but chased the image from her mind as a plan formed.

"Get to the catapult! Kill every Shiny you see!" Briar ordered as she began a charge up the path towards where the Empire had placed their siege engine. The minions roaring behind her and the chiming sounds as the brays began to enchant the brown fighters and their stolen weapons.

When Briar and the horde reached the battalions guarding the catapult the shock on the men's faces was clearly evident as the minions slammed into their rear, catching them completely by surprise. As more and more soldiers fell to their numbers some of the minions went to ransack the supply crates and nearby tents, again searching for better weapons and armour, even passing some daggers and staffs to the brays (checking first to make sure they weren't better than their own weapon, of course). Finally all the soldiers were dead and Briar began to climb the catapult to figure out how it worked, the horde followed and several browns descended into the siege engine to take control of it.

Briar could see several battalions marching up the hill she and her minions had just come and ordered the minions to move the catapult to the left, and seeing an opportunity waited for the catapult to gain tension and fired the boulder.

She had always had a good aim, and the boulder struck true, flattening most of the soldiers in one hit and seriously wounding many of the survivors.

With those battalions out of the battle Briar ordered the minions to move the catapult again this time aiming for the landslide blocking her path to the safety of the Netherworld. She let lose another boulder (which the minions had replaced from the large amount the Empire had prepared right next to the siege engine) and was rewarded as the rocks and snow were blasted out of her way, only for Empire soldiers to come charging up the path towards her and the horde. Quickly calling the minions from the catapult she met the soldiers in battle again, taking the head off of one soldier as a bray cursed his legs to lock together, preventing him from moving, he was dead before his body hit the snow. A cry from the back of the attacking battalion shifted her attention and Briar was awed when she saw the wolves dragging some soldiers to the knees and therefore in easy killing reach for the minions.

"Yeah, get 'dem Shinnies wolvies!"

"Minions ride wolvies!" As she and other minions killed the few remaining soldiers more than half of the browns were able to mount onto the wolves and fall back into form behind her as she and her five minions rushed back to the cleared road block and soon came to a large area set just before the coast where the Empire army had moored it ships, a separate area had been set aside by the Empire which seemed to be used to store cages for animals. It was well guarded, with archers stationed up high and two battalions of soldiers. Briar stopped to take a look round; thankfully, none of the battalions had seen her and the shepherdess was able to dispose of the archer squads without drawing the attention of the two battalions.

Once the wolf mounted browns returned to her she sent the horde to engage the battalions, losing several non-mounted minions and a bray who had been fool hardy enough to charge in with his horns. Briar had no time to care about him and had to push the horde on.

The entrance to the coast was blocked, this time purposely by the Empire, it was obvious they had placed the stones in such a way to hold off any attack made by an enemy against their base camp. She had to find another way through, the Empire had probably reclaimed the catapult and it wouldn't have been able to throw rocks this far anyway. They rushed into the camp where the cages were stored and were engaged by another battalion left to guard one particular cage which was larger than any of the others. As Briar and the horde began to push the battalion against the cage she noticed that the soldiers were desperate not be backed against the large cage which Briar thought just held a lump of snow.

But when the lump of snow moved she realized it was some sort of creature and as the backs of the soldiers began to sidle up to the cold metal bars this creature got to its feet and used huge hands to grab some of the soldiers and pull them through the bars where it tore the soldiers apart and began to eat the chunks.

"Smash yeti cage! Yeti smash shinnies!" That wasn't a yeti, yetis were vegetarians, and yetis were never that hairy. This creature's long fur covered its eyes and all that could be seen of its face was a pink, pig-like nose, two long tusks pointing upwards from its large mouth and two long curving horns growing from behind the creatures small ears. When the minions and brays had destroyed the door to its large cage it was able to stand to its full thirteen feet of height and stable itself on its tree trunk sized arms. Briar could just see that no fur grew on its chest or abdomen which showed off the muscles in this creatures torso. This was no yeti, this was a wendigo.

_"How, by the Goddess, did the Empire manage to catch that!"_ Briar wondered as the huge carnivore stepped towards her, Briar raised her sword and felt the burning sensation in her left hand as she called a fire ball.

"Thank you." She hadn't been expecting that from the mouth of a wendigo as the huge creature rushed to the cover of some nearby trees, leaving her and the horde to find another way to the coast.

They were forced back to the road block to try and find a weakness in it, there was no way from the cage camp. The minions tried moving rocks and the brays tried enchantments to make the stones lighter or the minions stronger, but the rocks had been bound together with a strong mortar and wasn't capable of being moved. Things were hopeless with this path, so close and now the minions would have to lead her another way; then the wendigo returned from the trees and walked up to Briar again. "Glow-eyed female helped Ox from cage. Ox help glow-eyed female from metal men." The wendigo said through all its fur and blood stained tusks. Briar and the minions watched as 'Ox' ran into the road block and the rocks and mortar cracked and shattered from the white wendigos sheer strength. Ox followed the horde to the ships and the battle against the many soldiers here was simple, most of the empire warriors were shocked when the horde came rushing through their road block, a wendigo charging behind them was enough to send most of the soldiers into a panic.

It took all of a couple of minutes to kill the battalions and archer squads and Ox was even able to throw a keg of explosive onto a ship where the sailors were throwing cannonballs down on them, the explosion could probably be seen from Nordberg and Briar knew the Empire would send reinforcement from another base camp somewhere in the wilderness. She was limping, an archer had scored a lucky shot to her right thigh and their progress was slow until Ox easily picked her up and placed her onto his huge shoulders. Briar reveled in how soft his fur was.

"Minion Burrows close." Gloob said.

"Yay, Minion Burrows! Brays are back!"

A resounding crack came to their ears and the ice they were marching on began to break up.

Ox was too heavy for the ice sheets and before either she or Ox were able to do anything they had both descended into the bays freezing depths.

------ LoO ------

He was back again, standing before her in his armour and great tri-pointed helmet, eyes glowing along with the gem on his left gauntlet. The great army of minions behind him now joined with the howling of wolves and the chiming of bray enchantments. Heavy footfalls and he was within touching distance of her. His right hand, still within its gauntlet reached up and caressed her face, taking gentle care with the claws built onto the fingers. They were cold, but she did not shiver, she could see the blue glow from her eyes shining against his armour. The Overlord removed her hood and titled her face to his amber eyes, he leant down and stopped inches away.

Briar could see some detail to his face behind the frightening helmet; deep brows and a straight, noble nose.

"So much like your mother." he said in rich voice. Briar couldn't talk, somehow, she had known all along. How else would her mother know all those stories about the old Overlord, if she had not been his mistress. How else would she know instinctively to cast a fireball spell if she was not his child.

"Mother said you died."

"She was right... in a way." Behind him the minions, brays and wolves began to march forwards, forming behind Briar as her vision began to fade. "Open your eyes, I will try to reach you when you a stronger." Briar was again taken by blackness and she began to feel cold.

She heard squeaking and opened her eyes again to see she was trapped in ice and the minions were wiping the outside of her frozen prison. Gnarl was watching and he seemed to be berating himself, Mortis was there too with a knowing look on his face. She wasn't able to hear Gnarl's rant until he came closer to her.

"... I can't believe this. You, the last hope for evil! You're bit more... feminine than I had expected Briar. The daughter of Mistress Rose, that would've made things so much more simpler, if we'd have known that." the grey minion sighed "Still, at least you're hear now and I say, what a way to make your presence known to the Glorious Empire." Briar watched as Quaver came up to the ice and pressed an eye against it. He was stuck to the ice now.

_"You idiot"_ she thought, watching the black minion try and reclaim his eye.

"Flattened entire legions with boulders... grown men screaming... minion carnage... even gaining the loyalty of a wendigo. This is great news!" Gnarl said excitedly turning to some minions behind quickly. "Fire up the dragon..."

_"... dragon?"_ What dragon?

"... that'll thaw her out."

Quaver was able to pull himself from the ice, leaving his eye behind, just in time as a wall of fire rushed towards her, the ice hissing as the flames met with the frozen water.

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Well we now know who Briar's family are and she's back with the minions. What does the next chapter hold, you'll have to wait and see.

Remember, keep leaving plot ideas.


	6. Promises to the Empire

Sorry for a bit of a wait, but here it is. Read to your heart's contentment.

I own nothing to do with the Overlord games, I only made Briar and the brays and if Code Masters or Triumph Studios want to use them, they can.

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**Legacy of the Overlord**

Chapter Six: Promises to the Empire

As the dragon's breath washed over her and her icy prison Briar decided she was going to have to talk to Gnarl about that; a ten tonne reptile with the brain of a walnut casually walking about did not seem very efficient to the running of the Netherworld Tower. The melting ice returned to its liquid form and it ran in rivulets down the thinning ice surrounding her. Briar felt sensation returning to her limbs and the stinging of the arrow still embedded in the flesh of her thigh. With the ice no longer keeping her upright Briar fell to the ground; the center of the throne room in the dip which showed the reach of the great Netherworld Gate. The minions circled around with the brays, checking to see if their shepherd was okay. Ramrod in his red blanket was standing next to Gnarl and Mortis was a little way off from them, his scythe catching reflections of the flames. "Huumm, you've grown a bit since you left."

"You're still the same." she said with a smile. It was good to be back. "Will Quaver be okay?" Briar asked seeing the black minion nursing his head while nearby minions laughed at and taunted him. "I quite enjoy his dirty jokes."

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine. He's been through worse treatment then some taunting." Knowing that was all the reassurance she would get concerning poor Quaver, Briar attempted to stand. Ramrod was the first to come to her aid followed by Gnarl, Mortis and rest of the gathered minions and brays.

"Come to your Private Quarters, Master; there I can heal that wound." Mortis droned. Briar struggled to her feet, finding she was now unable to put any weight at all onto her injured leg, the adrenaline of running from the Empire had worn off and there was no wendigo called Ox... or was it Oxen? Either way, there was no wendigo to carry her this time. Several brays came to help steady her was she balanced on her good leg and Gnarl ordered some of the minions to do the same.

"What about the horde that helped me escape? How many fatalities?" Briar asked as the minions helped her up the stairs behind the throne, the most direct path to the Private Quarters.

"Some minions were sent floating out to sea on the ice and others fell into the frigid bay, your brays had three fatalities, but fared better then the minions when it came to swimming ashore. Mortis is tending to those with wounds and those suffering from the cold in the Minion Burrows."

"Good. Until your population starts to grow we must try to limit minion losses."

_"Mortis will never let me hear the end of this."_ Gnarl thought, prodding a younger minion to move faster as Briar continued to limp up the steps. _"But she is already thinking about horde numbers and doesn't hold the few meeklings that die distract her from what's important... Dark Lady Briar? Yes, that has an evil ring to it."_ Gnarl grinned, showing all his teeth to the dim light of the Private Quarters.

"What about the wendigo, Ox?" Briar asked once they entered the Private Quarters proper; it was still as rundown and decrepit as when she had left. All her dogs, Grimjaw, Dark Lace, Bubbles, Fang, Jagger and Rip Tooth, were on her collapsed bed waiting for her. Catching sight of her, six tails began earnestly wagging.

"Well Dark Mistress, you see... while we were able to locate you fairly quickly in that frozen bay because of your magical energy, your hairy friend is not magical and is still lost. Most likely he's been washed ashore somewhere close by though." Gnarl sat on his small pile of rubble while Briar sat on the edge of her crumbling bed so Mortis could look at the arrow.

"Send some minions to try and find him, a wendigo will come in handy around here."

"My thoughts exactly Master, I have already sent several search groups out." Gnarl explained, watching Briar wince when Mortis touched the arrow shaft.

"The removal will have to wait until later." Mortis said in his bored voice, like he did this everyday; Briar had to remember that given the Brown minion's disregard for this little something called 'safety' he probably did do something like this everyday (on the lucky ones that survived the accidents or the fights anyway). The healer placed his scythe against one of the crumbling statues and reached into his dark robes, pulling out yet another bottle of some strange concoctions. Briar wondered if he had a whole potion set stuffed in his black robe somewhere. "Gnarl, if you would take the minions back to the throne room so the Mistress may have a little privacy."

"Ooooohhhhhh!" came a collective sound of disappointment from the minions as Gnarl began to herd them back down the stairs; Gloob, Torn, Pummel, Rasp and Gash included. Briar was already undressing and had placed her red cloak beside her on her stone bed; Grim took his chance to lie on it as his master continued disrobing.

Mortis had been sharpening a small knife he was going to use to cut Briar out of her Nordbergian trousers, the arrow would make it impossible for her to take them off as she normally would. He stopped when he saw Briar was wearing a finely made unicorn cloak underneath the red one she had just taken off. The same unicorn cloak that she had been making; it was now complete, finely trimmed and expertly made... it must have taken Briar some time to complete it.

There was now only one more ingredient needed to transform the cloak into one of the most powerful magical items the world had ever known.

"That is a most fine cloak, Mistress. How did acquire it?" the Blue leader asked dully, his voice holding no revelations that he had seen the skins and the blood stained needle and knife back when the minions had rescued her. He began to cut at her trousers, pretending the conversation was not as interesting to him as it really was.

"I made it." Briar said simply, putting the pure white cloak down on the other side of her so she could take off her belt, sparing Mortis from simply cutting through the tough leather. "But I haven't finished it yet."

"You haven't finished?" Mortis asked pulling the cut material of Briar's trousers away from her legs leaving the young shepherdess in only her thick woolen shirt. Mortis cast an eye over the white cloak as he threw the shredded trousers to the floor. It was a fairly large cloak (Briar could have used it as a blanket, most of its bulk had been hidden by her coat when she fled the Empire forces), Briar always preferred larger cloaks because it was easier to form a hood out of them. She had sewn each unicorn pelt together seamlessly, the transition between one pelt to the next was unnoticeable unless you really looked hard past the pure white fur and looked for the tiny stitches of goat sinew keeping the cloak together, Briar had made a series of clasps from leftover unicorn horn to help keep the cloak on her shoulders. It was beautiful, the fur shimmered as if it was still attached to the living unicorn in the torch light illuminating the Private Quarters main central chamber (used as the main bedroom and, Gnarl had told her, as a place to horde the Netherworld's plundered gold). It was the sort of clothing article a Noble would have paid a lot of gold for; it certainly was not the sort of thing you expected to belong to shepherd girl.

But it could be so much more, if only Briar realized.

"But it is all sewn and tidied, clasps as well. What else could you do to it?" Mortis was checking the slight bruising that was appearing around the arrow head and then pulled the stopper from the bottle of potion.

"I know... but I just can't stop thinking that I've forgotten something."

_"Like soaking it in your arcane powers, Dark Mistress?"_ Mortis replied in his head, but his mouth said, in its usual dull, bored drone. "Do not worry, Dark Mistress. I'm sure you will figure it out in due time." The conversation with the cloak had ended and Mortis began applying the thick substance from the bottle onto the bruising flesh the arrow was imbedded in. Briar could feel the potion numbing the sting and letting the young flesh and pale skin relax, having tensed from the intrusion. After putting a substantial amount of the potion onto her leg the Blue leader handed her the rest of the glass bottle, about one fifth of the potion remained. "Drink the rest Mistress, it will help you sleep. I will remove the arrow later tonight." The potion smelled strangely of peas but Briar was glad to note that it tasted rather bland, but it had a surprisingly tangy aftertaste. She swallowed what remained of the potion and gave the bottle back to its owner.

"See what you can do for Quaver, will you?"

"Of course Mistress, your words are my orders." Mortis replied taking his scythe as he made his way to the stairs leading back down to the throne room.

Briar settled down onto the furs and covers of her bed and prepared to sleep as she finally began feeling the effects of her adrenaline wear away with Mortis' potion, she kept her wounded leg out from the covers to avoid causing anymore damage.

------ LoO ------

It was differcult to distinguish day and night in the Netherworld, forty or so kilometers into the world's crust meant the only 'sky' you had was the top of a huge cavern. But Gnarl and the other minions were excellent time keepers and they acted as the Netherworld's clock, running chores and daily maintenance on Netherworld equipment on strict time frames and the set times were now more like instincts and habits to the minions.

They had found Briar frozen in the ice a day after she had made her escape, when she had fallen into the freezing bay with the wendigo, it had taken half a day to excavate her from the frigid ice and then the minions had to wait a couple more days for Syranox, the black dragon, to make his weekly migration back to the Netherworld tower so they could agitate the ten ton reptile into giving Briar's icy prison a fiery blast. Exactly how the black dragon had found his way to the deep, hot depths of the Netherworld Tower was anyone's guess, probably through the 'secret' and 'well hidden' surface entrance.

Briar had been thawed and taken to her Private Quarters late that morning; it was now nine o'clock at night so the Mistress had been sleeping for twelve hours, a combination of Mortis' potion and her own magical body trying to aid the healing process of her thigh. It was now time for Mortis and Gnarl to return to their Master and see how she was doing.

"Why couldn't the others be this easy?" Gnarl asked suddenly as he and Mortis climbed up the black obsidian stairs leading to the Private Quarters.

"What are you mumbling about, Old Brown?" Mortis asked, following behind the Minion Master as he went to get the arrow out of their new Master.

"Briar as our new Overlord."

"Over_lady_."

"Whatever, you know what I'm talking about." Gnarl growled, he still had to give Mortis those last five slugs from the tower's already pitiful food storage for losing their bet.

"You mean the signs the Netherworld gave that Briar was its chosen Master? The signs you utterly ignored and put down to the Netherworld's instability?" The Blue leader's voice was just as dull and bored as it always was but Gnarl knew that Mortis was just staking claim that _he _was right and Gnarl was wrong. The old brown could just imagine Mortis dancing around the graveyard altar when it became a certain fact Briar was the Netherworld's chosen ruler.

"Yes, yes, alright! You were right and I still need to give you those slugs!" An exasperated Gnarl said. Behind him, Mortis smiled quietly into the darkness of his hood. "What I'm trying to say is that, if the Netherworld, or even the old Tower Heart, had given anymore indication of their chosen Masters it would have made our work far more easier." At last they reached the top of the black stairs and as Gnarl's glowing stone chased some of the darkness from them, the two minions picked their way through the rubble thanks to the light.

"The Netherworld has a mind all of Its own, It remembers Its powerful maker and her magic. The same magic flows through Briar's veins. It has long been known that females conduct all magics easier than males." Mortis explained, hoping to give the Old Brown some reasonable theory.

They reached the center most chamber, where the beds would be placed and a personal treasury of the Overlord and any chosen Mistresses... Gnarl had wondered about how Briar's 'special' friends would pan out, but had decided to face that hurdle when they reached it. The two leading minions stood beside Briar's stone bed where she still slept, the dog pack looking intently at them as they approached closer to their master. Her face, free from the pain and various other emotion was graced with a peaceful expression. Her large eyes closed and her soft lips parted slightly with her gentle breathing. Although minions generally saw beauty as a blight they, could appreciate the form of feminine beauty and Briar was beautiful, even at her young age, on the doorstep of adulthood. Gnarl could see tell-tale signs of the woman Briar was to grow to become, as her face and features lost some of the softness of childhood and became sharper; more defined. The old brown used a clawed finger to carefully brush a stray strand of jet black hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. Briar would never know.

Mortis was paying more attention to Briar's injured leg which was still uncovered from the blanket and her cloaks, which she had used as blankets, and the Blue leader gently touched the tender flesh around the intrusive arrowhead. Mortis grinned with satisfaction as he found the skin and muscle had loosened, having tightened around the arrowhead to prevent further injury, the bodies way of trying to remove foreign bodies from itself. In the case of the arrow however, the tightening caused more damage, the barbed arrowhead just burrowing deeper into the flesh. Mortis lent his scythe against the decrepit stone and returned his attention to the arrow shaft. "If you could cover her, Minion Master, we can begin the extraction." Gnarl carefully pulled Briar's red cloak over her face.

"Okay Mortis, carry on." Gnarl watched as the healer began to slowly pull on the arrow shaft; and bit by bit, Mortis eased the projectile from Briar's thigh. A small amount of blood escaped from the angry wound as the metal head was brought closer to the skin. Unfortunately, while the potion acted as a minor numbing agent and sedative, it wasn't enough to keep Briar asleep for the whole of Mortis' operation. She was beginning to stir, her face grimacing as the pain began to wake her up. Sensing their master's discomfort, the dogs whined and got to their paws, jumping down from the stone bed.

Mortis struggled to keep hold of the arrow as Briar began to try and move her leg away from him. "It is time, Gnarl." The Minion Master took hold of Grimjaw's collar and ran back down the stairs, the rest of the dogs following their alpha. Mortis waited for as long as he dared and then gave a hard tug...

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Gnarl didn't stop running until he reached the throne room, out of breath and fighting to get some of the Netherworld's hot air back into his lungs he released Grim's collar as he lent against the broken throne to help aid his recovery. The dogs seemed to have realized the Minion Master had brought them away from their shepherdess for their own good, since they decided to sit and lay around the throne instead of going back up the stairs.

"Master Gnarl?" Quaver said as he approached, the black minion's missing eye had been tended by Mortis and the eyelid was now shut over the empty space in his head. "I take it that Master Mortis' operation went well?"

"Well, we'll see right about..." As if on cue, the proof that the Mistress would be fine made itself apparent.

"Argh! Owww! Mortis!" Briar's anger carried her voice across the Netherworld. Arcs of red magical energy striking and bouncing from the floating boulders and rocks circling around the upside-down tower and a blast of hot air came rushing down from the stairway leading to the Private Quarters and blew around the throne room.

Seconds later, a scorched Mortis made his way over to the Old Brown and the Jester waiting near the throne, his robe and scythe smoking heavily and with the offending arrow in his free hand; the feathers at its end glowing and lit like a candle. Mortis cast the arrow into the lava pool behind the decrepit throne before coming to stand beside Gnarl.

"Well, it went better than expected." Gnarl said to Quaver, he then turned his attention back to the still smoking blue leader, whose blackened face was being licked clean thanks to Dark Lace. "Is the Master going to be okay?"

"She'll be fine, give her a chance to heal and she won't even be limping." Mortis replied in his usual drone. "It is most amazing, however." He added "Still half asleep, half blinded by her cloak, and yet she still has a remarkable aim with a fireball... that's the closet one so far." With that, the Blue began to walk back outside to return to his place at the Graveyard in the Minion Barracks.

------ LoO ------

To say Giblet loved his job, would be an understatement. He had been the Chief Forger and Construction Master of the Netherworld Tower for many years now, but forging was definitely his most favorite. Banging away at soft, heated metal with a solid object and forcing it to take the shape _you_ wanted it to take was what every minion was good at, but Giblet could turn it into an art. It was like beating something into submission... creature, human, another minion, it didn't matter (everything was similar in that regard to a minion)... and although he was no longer allowed to follow an Overlord and their horde to kill and pillage, he was starting to understand why Minion Master Gnarl and Blue Leader Mortis liked to remain in the Netherworld.

It was much easier to do your job and serve the Overlord if you weren't dead.

"More! More!" Giblet barked as his assistant Forgers, five normal browns and two rare Hobbe browns, taller and stronger than their run-of-the-mill siblings. It was another perk of the job that Giblet liked, shouting out orders that others obeyed without question as he and one of the Hobbes hammered at some hot sheet metal he was turning into Briar's breastplate. The brown minions were chucking coal, wood, even rat and minion corpses and anything else that would burn to keep Giblet's furnace hot enough so the Forger could work. "Keep going! Giblet need more heat!" They had to keep throwing stuff in, normally the red minions themselves would power the forge and its furnaces, but with them missing, the browns had to make their own fire.

Gnarl had told the Forger to keep the armour simple, since Briar was still a juvenile she was still growing and the armour sets made for her now wouldn't fit when she was fully grown, so by keeping this armour simple it could be melted down and remade as she grew. Minions were masters at recycling.

Giblet had nearly completed Briar's armour, only the breast plate remained to be put onto the dummy the minions were using to see how it would fit their Master. Compared to the past Overlord's, Briar's armour would make use of leather armour and cloth scavenged from Empire camps on the surface and Empire soldier corpses, the metal armour taken from the Empire would either find its way onto the attire of a minion or be melted down in the Forge.

The full length arm guards would begin at Briar's wrists, which would also be covered by light gauntlets to protect her hands, the arm guards stopped at simple shoulder pauldrons. Her legs would be protected with steel shin guards while tough leather would protect her thighs (a must considering she didn't want to go through Mortis' treatment again). Her breast plate would not only protect her chest but would also have chainmail to give her abdomen some much needed protection.

Briar had insisted she did not want a helmet, her hood had been good enough for years now, but Gnarl had asked that she wore something to protect her face. He told her about Overlord's who had lost eyes, gained broken noses and swallowed a few loose teeth from getting hit in the face by thrown projectiles, stones and arrows, even at one time a cannonball; not to mention the blows from melee weapons and sword incidents. Briar had reconsidered after the particular tale of the cannonball and had agreed to wear something. Gnarl and Giblet did agree that the iconic tri-pointed helmet of the past Overlords wouldn't suit her and had instead gone with the idea of an ancient Overlord who was almost forgotten.

An Overlord once called Jack of Blades. He was before Gnarl's time so what his conquests were or what happened to him were nothing now but rumour and speculation. But, like Briar, Jack of Blades had been a fan of cloaks and hoods. Instead of a helmet, he had worn a mask so it was decided that Briar would have a mask as well.

It had been the first thing Giblet had made of her armour, it had started as a simple iron sheet which the Forger had shaped to the rough measurements of Briar's face.

Now, the armour was nearly complete and the minions excitement could almost be tasted. Briar had been chosen by the Netherworld and from the stories that Gloob, Rasp and the others who had found her had told, she had a lot of promise. Yes, there was no doubt in any minion that the new, young Overlady was finally with them. The excitement was palpable, how much pillage would they claim? How many heads would they smash? How much booze would they drink? It was enough to make any minion giddy. Giblet's assistants carried on, they would be rewarded over time when the Lady began her claim of the surface world.

Briar's mask was plain, it just had eye holes and one little decal on the right cheek. A thorny rose with its stem wrapped by a velvet ribbon, a small memorial to her mother and aunt, although Giblet had no idea the little detail held such meaning for his Master. "More! More heat! Nearly done!"

"See, Mistress, I told you Giblet would not be long." The voice of Minion Master Gnarl explained to the fully healed Briar as they walked down the steps from the floating rock platform that brought them here from the main tower. "Giblet is a robust fellow, been around almost as long as I have." They came to stand in front of the dummy holding Briar's armour. "We were hoping to have some time to see how well you can fight in armour, it will be a little different from just a few bandits. But with your furry friend in the situation he's in, time is of the essence."

"We should go at night, we will be harder to see and hopefully we'll just slip into the camp... until the minions have killed most of the guards and we have Ox."

"Yes, we must at least try to save the wendigo, we could use the muscle around here."

"Breast plate is done for Overlady." Giblet said approaching them, behind him a Hobbe brown carried the completed breastplate with chainmail and handed it to Gnarl.

"Good work, Giblet." the old minion said, turning and offering it to Briar. She took hold of the plate armour and ran her hand over the beaten metal. "The minions will help you put it on, you just need to tell them how it feels." Gnarl explained. Some minions had already taken the dummy away and Briar followed behind them.

The armour, while it had been placed on the dummy, looked plain and the minions had been worried that it wouldn't look menacing on Briar's small body. The worry turned out out to be unneeded. Although Briar was small, with her red hood shadowing the metal mask and her cloak and shawl covering some of the protective armour on her upper arms she looked menacing enough. The mask hiding her face made her seem like an emotionless killer with her armour and her sword, the stolen Empire sword she had taken the night she escaped, just added to the effect of fear. Her eyes glowing bright with cold blue light. Considering how temporary this armour was, it was perfect on her; with the left gauntlet holding a glowing gem similar to the one Gnarl had suspended over his head. It was a means for the minions to know where she was and the gem could draw life energy into it, Gnarl had told her he would explain about life force when the opportunity showed itself.

"Why my, Lady!" Gnarl remarked "Giblet and the other Forgers have outdone themselves."

"Now is not the time for that Gnarl, we'll see how well this armour stands up to battle soon." Briar reminded him, beginning to walk back towards the floating rock platform, Gnarl following quickly, leaving the Forge to return to the Tower with his Mistress.

"Remember young Lady, the Netherworld will allow me to talk to you telepathically wherever you are on the surface world." Gnarl reminded her.

"How do we return to the surface?"

"Since we have no idea where there are any Netherworld gates you and the minions will have to use the secret entrance to reach the surface, it will take a bit longer, but it will be night when you reach the camp where the Empire have the wendigo." Gnarl said, Briar nodded to show her understanding. As the floating rock neared the Tower she saw a large gathering of minions awaiting her to lead them to the surface. Gloob, Gash, Rasp, Torn and Pummel, mounted on the dogs and the horde would also be accompanied by a few of the bray shamen; she felt her lips tug into a smile, they looked like fighters, it was enough for the moment.

This would be the first attack she would lead against the Empire, this would be the first of many she would lead to get her revenge upon their entire civilization.

First would be Nordberg. She would deal with Mellow Hills in due time.

------ LoO ------

It felt like it was colder outside, but Briar put that down to being in the Netherworld for a while and getting too use to the volcanic heat of the Tower. Like Gnarl had expected she and the twenty strong minion horde with eight bray shamen were now lying low in the tree line of a small forest fifty meters from the camp holding Ox. She could see the large cage the soldiers had somehow got the huge wendigo into, and he was looking rather sorry for himself, but if one of the Empire soldiers got too close to his cage he would try to get his large hands through the bars to grab hold of the soldiers. Briar felt her lips tug again, at least Ox hadn't given up totally.

Her five minions and her six dogs were hid close to her while the other minions had scattered themselves along the edge of the forest awaiting her order to advance on the camp. Along the way they had found wolves and now most of the minions were on wolf mounts, the eight brays were also nearby, Ramrod was with his Shepherd of course.

They were waiting for the right time, if the Empire acted the same as they had in Mellow Hills than most of the camps soldiers would be sleeping soon, leaving the camp to be guarded by a few of their number. They would have horns to wake the others if something happened, but Briar had an idea. The tingling in her eyes showed her eagerness, but she needed to wait, now was not the time.

"_Can you hear me Mistress?"_ Gnarl's voice said over their bond.

"Yes Gnarl, I can hear, no need to shout."

"_Sorry, Mistress. This is the camp, and I must say I like your plan."_ the old minion said happily _"By the time they realise they're being attacked, most of them will be dead! Ha Ha!"_

It was late when finally saw a majority of the soldiers retreat to tents and temporarily erected buildings, tiny groups of guards were stationed at certain entrances and exists into the camp and single guards patrolled around the camp. Thinking that their Master would be ordering the advance soon many of the minions began to draw their weapons but were disappointed when their young Lady gave the signal for wait; the soldiers had only just entered their tents and would still be awake. Briar wanted them fast asleep, many would not wake to see the next dawn, she wanted to leave the Empire a clear message. A camp full of dead soldiers still in their beds would leave a very good one.

Two hours later, the only light in the pitch darkness of night was the small fires around the Empire camp and the occasional eyeshine from the minions, their mounts and their Master from the forest. Some of the stationed guards had fallen asleep, thinking tonight was going to be just like the last, and some of the patrolling guards had taken to sitting at the fires to warm themselves with the sleeping stationed guards. Briar's glowing eyes intensified behind her mask and at last, she was ready.

"Gloob, Pummel, Torn." The three minions approached their Lady and waited for her instruction. "Each of you will take some minions and a bray for each of your groups and you will enter the tents and kill the guards. Be quiet, make sure they don't ever wake up." Even in the darkness, the amber glow from their own eyes glinted off their teeth as they grinned in excitement.

"Of course Mistress." Pummel said

"We live to bash." With that the three minions, Gloob on Grimjaw, Pummel on Dark Lace and Torn on Jagger, left their master to gather some of the horde to perform their Mistress' will. Gash and Rasp remained with her along with Ramrod, the dog and wolf mounts snarling and their fur standing on end, the minions shaking from excitement, this was what they had been waiting for since the fall of the old Overlord, their young Lady's father. They watched as Briar gave Pummel and the other two a chance to get the minions and brays they needed before she raised her hand and then threw it forward.

The horde broke cover, Briar leading the way as she watched for any sign that the guards had spotted them. Their eyes were glowing, it wasn't like they were completely hidden by the night's darkness.

The horde reached the outer tents of the camp and as Briar and the main horde continued on to reach the wendigo cage, Gloob, Torn and Pummel led their small groups of three or four minions and single brays into the nearby tents. Silence emerged with them after a few moments of silent actions within, along with bloody weapons.

The minions worked efficiently, killing guards quickly and without a sound, Briar only wanted to get to the wendigo first. Two guards were left to guard the massive cage that contained Ox. She was where she needed to be... now this Empire camp was going to be the warmest place in Nordberg.

"_Go on, young Mistress! Show them your power!"_

The young Overlord felt heat running in the veins of her right arm under the armour, hot mana collect in her hand without burning her or melting her simple plate gauntlets; the fireball roared and spat in her palm before she aimed it at the largest tent where most of the soldiers and the general in charge of this camp were probably sleeping, and it caught fire easily, a huge hole exploded in the side facing Briar.

Naturally, the soldiers woke, the few that had not been assassinated in their sleep and those who had taken up weapons were quickly swarmed and the brays began their deep chants to empower the brown warriors. The two guards in front of the wendigo's cage turned to look at Briar and charged her but she had seen these tactics before from the bandits in Evernight Forest. One guard had his stomach and intestines spill from his abdomen with a well placed slice from Briar's sword, the other had his head cut cleanly from his shoulders, the body took one more charging step before it slumped to the ground and the head was left to roll away, a minion gave it a swift, joyful kick and then charged with his fellows to engage more soldiers.

"_Yes! Yes! Here them scream Master, what music!"_

Ox had woken and was beating his chest and roaring through the bars trying to be louder than the gleeful cries of the minions and the screaming of the Empire soldiers. Briar let fly more fireballs as she fought off more soldiers and soon enough many tents and shelters were nothing but huge bonfires, lighting up the dark sky for miles and sending up huge pillars of smoke. Most of the simple structures, tents and shelters, gave no motion... only those when the three separate assassination groups crept out from the entrances.

The soldiers' screams were dying out and Briar cast a glance to the smoke blotted sky, the Empire forces in Nordberg Town should be able to see this, hopefully that overplump pig, Borius, his entire civilization, would pay for what they had done to her. This was only the first camp fire she would start in her campaign against them.

As the minions continued to seek out and kill off the rest of the soldiers Briar turned to the wendigo cage to see Ox looking down at her through the thick white fur covering his eyes.

"Glow-eyed female open cage again?" the large monster sounded like it was pleading. Using the heat that came before the creation of a fireball in her hand she tore off the lock letting the giant white creature out, standing to his full thirteen feet of height. "Thank you."

"Your name is Ox, isn't it?" Briar asked. "I am Briar, the Master of these creatures, we are seeking allies to help us bring down the Glorious Empire. We saved you in the hopes that you would willingly join our cause..."

"You came back _for _Ox!" the wendigo's tusked mouth was open and his tiny, pink eyes were wide under his fur. "No one ever came back for Ox before."

_"White fur, bright pink nose and skin, red eyes. It seems that he is an albino, Master. In wendigo society it is believed albinos are cannibals, it's absolutely untrue but it is firm believe these savages have."_ she heard Gnarl say over the link from the Netherworld.

"I kill many metalmen to protect my tribe, Briar, but when Ox was wounded they did not come back for me. Tribe did not help me." Ox explained as the fires raged around them, already the minions were scavenging materials from the fires. "They think me a monster amongst them, Ox did nothing to them! Ox saved those fools!"

_"Where have I heard that before?"_ Briar thought solemnly to herself. "They will not be able to use you again if you come with me. I will not use you, but your immense strength is needed." Ox straightened up, like he was standing to attention, then he bowed, his curling horns almost hitting the snow at Briar's feet.

"Ox will go with Cheiftess Briar." The huge wendigo said "Briar has earned Ox's muscles, she saved me where Ox's own tribe would just leave Ox." He stood up again as Briar's sharp whistle rent through the air, drawing the attention of the minions and calling them up, it was time to return to the Netherworld with their new ally.

When Empire forces came to investigate the camp the next day, Briar, her horde and Ox were gone, the footprints of their wolf mounts disappeared with the blizzard that struck just as the investigating party and their protective battalion of soldiers began to track the prints across the frozen river. None of the fifty soldiers stationed at the camp were found alive.

Most were found still tucked in their sleeping cots, their throats silced.

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Remember leave reviews if you like it and keep the plot ideas coming.


	7. The Return of the Red Hood

Sorry it's been such a long wait. My computer has been playing up and I haven't been able to do much because of it. Not only that but I'm also starting to pick up Prime Mover again. But here it finally is Chapter Seven.

Remember: I own nothing except Briar and the brays and if Code Masters or Triumph Studios want to use them, they can.

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**Legacy of the Overlord**

Chapter Seven: The Return of the Red Hood

Quaver's Ditty

There was a girl from Hills so Mellow

Whose blood sent the townsfolk screaming

But now the girl's become a Lady

She'll start her evil scheming.

------ LoO ------

The weather was perfect, the sun was shining bright on the virgin snow and covered the trees in gold as the dawn chorus was in full swing. There was no indication of what was about to happen; of what was making its way up to the surface world. For the Glorious Empire there would be no warning.

Four years had passed since her first attack against the Empire, four years since saving Ox, who was now a fully grown wendigo of great strength and firm loyalty, four years since she took up the mantle of the Overlords. She had withdrawn from the surface world for those many years, gaining strength, training her minions and brays, breeding her dogs so the pups could be mounts for her minions, improving her own strength and finesse... plotting, scheming and searching for the locations of the other minion tribes. And now, Briar once again stepped out into the great ice cave that hid the surface entrance to the Netherworld as her dogs and a small force of minions and brays rose from the hot depths of the Netherworld with her, eager to set out for their Dark Lady's bidding.

She was tall. She towered over most other women and she was stronger than most men thanks to her heritage, her armour was much more menacing now as Giblet had been able to experiment and her armour was very ornate, with minion and bray motifs gave the iron plate armour a feeling of being carved from rock. Of course, her trademark red cloaks, including her powerful Cloak of Shadows, gave her an air of fear.

After an accident involving a raid on an Empire camp to get resources and lifeforce, she had been minorly wounded and had smeared some of her arcane blood onto the beautiful unicorn cloak. It had been like a sudden memory, like something she had forgotten and had then proceeded to complete the powerful artifact. Mortis had been so proud of her.

Her arm guards and guantlets were strong and thick since she had a tendency to use them to use them as shields, blocking the blows from her opponents before striking out at them with her custom made katana-like sword, called Ruffian, again decorated with minion and bray decals. Her mask, which had gone through many designs over the past years, also had the minion and bray decorations carved into it and had been gilded with gold in the groves caused by the engraving process. As the deep, rich red light from the lava reached her mask and shone from the gold on her mask and armour, the decal of a rose flower with its stem wrapped in a velvet ribbon could be seen on the right cheek while her vivid blue eyes peered from the eye holes as the nineteen year old scanned the surrounding cave. Some minions who had been placed on guard at the cave approached. "Da' Lady approaches."

"The Master? Oh, the Master, the Master. Yay!"

"Out of way Gribble," Rasp said from the back of Jagger "Dark Lady got things to do." Pushing the younger minion out of the way so Briar could walk on.

"You are most correct Rasp." Quaver said standing on top of a barrel of stolen food from a recent raid on a camp. "Today our Dark Lady will seek out the reds, we can finally begin to rebuild the Dark Forces! The minion hordes will once again claim what is our Master's!"

"Yeah! Come Dark Lady! Follow! Follow!" the minions shouted running ahead of her, the dogs barking and tails wagging. She jogged to keep up hearing the thundering feet of Ox behind her. They didn't stop until they reached a large open area where the minions had put up scaffolding to make sure the ice cave didn't collapse, to one side was a minion gate dug out by minion digger when they began to build the scaffolding some years ago, when Gnarl and the others had first found the surface entrance to the Netherworld.

"Dark Lady, way blocked." Torn said as Jagger, who he was riding, tried to dig at the large amount of snow that had been driven into the cave by Nordberg's chilling wind the other minions climbed up onto the snow drift to try and dig a way for their master.

"Ox, you know what needs to be done." Briar said calmly and watched as the albino wendigo walked past her. He was wearing huge plates of armour over his arms with studs and spikes on them, custom made by Giblet and his crew in the Foundations, as a means of making his already terribly destructive punches and arm swipes even more destructive. He made easy work of tearing down the blockage of ice and driven snow, unfortunately casting poor Quaver down into the pit. Shame, he was quite a favorite of Briar's.

"Hey, help me out! I want to be on the field of battle, the roar of the beasts, the smell of the minions!" She should have remembered, however, that Quaver had a strange way of getting out of near death situations. But she had better things to do than help a minion climb out of a pit and she led the way to the outside as Ox made sure there were no more drifts in the way.

Soon enough the bright Nordberg sun was shining on the areas of Briar's armour that were not covered by her cloaks. In the distance she could see the recognizable twin peaks between which Nordberg Town had been built but it would take the better part of a day to reach the town on foot.

Besides, Briar had no plans to go near the town yet, she wanted to find the Red minions first before tackling the Empire forces in the town since recent reports by minions and overheard gossip from the Empire soldiers about 'red demons' being seen in the vicinity of a cave needed to be investigated. If the reports turned out to be nothing at all, so be it, the brown horde was strong for now and the occasional raid against small camps could only do so much for the brown's boredom levels, fighting between minions in the Netherworld was escalating and they needed to take their agitation out on the Empire.

Briar looked out over the nearby snow flats and felt her elegant brows cross when she saw igloos and fires at the very base of the small mountain which hid the entrance to the Netherworld. Although it was unlikely the hunters would come to the mountain since they were probably interested in wolves and the seals but they were too close for Briar's comfort, they would have to be 'convinced' to move their camps elsewhere. Having wasted enough time looking at the situation Briar led her horde down the thin ledge that led to the coast as it was the only place that could be reached at this time of year, the winter snow would have blocked the other paths by now and she could use the excuse to collect more lifeforce for her minions. It should be the fur seals breeding season now.

She heard the calls of the young seal pups as they lounged on the snow banks and the minions began hissing with hate at the 'furry rats'. For some reason all minions absolutely detested seal pups, saying their big eyes could see into your soul and so they had to be eradicated from the face of the world; Briar didn't know if any of it was true but that didn't matter, all she cared about was the lifeforce the young seals had. When she gave the minions the command to kill the seal pups on the snow banks her forces wasted no time in attacking, with the bray shamen casting slowing spells on the surprisingly nimble pups to give the minions chance to catch the furry critters before they escaped into the sea. Ox stayed with Briar, his bulk wouldn't help here but he could have a little snack on a couple of the carcasses when the minions finished them off, the blood soon drenching the snow and the lifeforce flowing to the gem in Briar's gauntlet. Some of the minions were skinning the seals and throwing the bloody pelts over themselves as grotesque attire. Laughing and giggling like kids the whole time.

As the minions continued to cull the seal pups, Ox discovered another snow drift and after finishing his snack of skinned seal, used his huge strength to batter a way through for his Dark Lady and her warriors. Coming face to face with a human male wearing thick fur coats and leather boots on the other side once he dusted himself free from the snow, a hunter from the looks of him and he rubbed his hands together, muttering something about 'piles of gold' as he approached the perplexed wendigo with a club. Having killed the seals on that stretch of beach Briar had followed Ox to see the hunter come up to the albino.

"Hey! What'd you want?" the hunter said in a gruff voice.

"What do you think you were going to do with my wendigo?" Briar asked calmly approaching with the minions and brays following. Her dogs and their respective riders walking by her side, having long been considered sort of bodyguards to her. Behind them were other minions mounted on their pups, they would still need to find some wolves however, much of her horde were still unmounted. The hunter grinned widely from the fur lining his hood, strong in the belief he was the superior in this matter.

"_I_ have a permit from the Empire to hunt on these lands, this is _my_ wendigo! I saw it first! Get lost! Go get your own!"

"Very well, try and take him." Briar said, the minions and brays watched wanting to see what Ox would do to this insolent arsehole that would dare talk to their lady like that. The hunter delivered a swift blow with his club to Ox's abdomen, the huge tundra animal just looked at the hunter then to the area of his chest where the club hit; he didn't even feel the blow. But it was the act of actually hitting him that got Ox angry. The hunter, realizing he had probably bitten off more than he could handle began to back off, but Ox wasn't letting him off that easy. The wendigo's roar made Briar's chest vibrate and the minions cheer, the first of Ox's blows flattened the hunter and the Dark Lady heard several sickening cracks, the second hit probably wasn't nesscary, but it sent the limp body flying into the air as Ox roared after him. The wendigo calmed when he turned back to face Briar and bowed his head.

"Ox go and see what ahead, perhaps more hunters?" with that, the huge albino creature sauntered off as the minions went to kill some more seal pups and some protective mothers. Briar let him go, it would take more than a bunch of hunters armed only with clubs and spears to do any significant damage to the hardy wendigo.

_"Brilliant Dark Lady, the minion hive down here is near overflowing with lifeforce!"_ Gnarl's voice sang in her head.

"_The tower needs to be repaired and I have to grow my hordes, start the repairs now Gnarl and expect to have more minions by the end of day, have the strongest begin training for the army._" Briar explained whistling to call the minions and brays back to her, carrying on along the ice sheets.

_"Of course, Mistress, I'll assign the new boys tasks as soon as they're with us."_ Gnarl's presence in her head disappeared as the old brown leader left to execute his master's will.

It was not long before the Overlord and her small horde heard the sounds of chaos at the small camp Briar had seen from the thin path on the mountain, seems like Ox had discovered the camp and was softening up the hunters for them. The horde charged with Briar leading and the brays starting their chants to slow the hunters down and give the browns even more strength than they possessed already. Ox and Briar didn't need any enchantments.

"Tear down the igloos, make sure they don't come here again!" Briar ordered and immediately the minions began to tear and hack at the snow blocks and Ox just pounded away at any nearby igloos, working their ways like fire across a wheat field to the other igloos and freeing any wolves they found trapped in cages. It seemed that wolves had been the main animal species these hunters had been after, and reading one of the Empire permits she had found on one of the hunters she could guess why. Her raiding parties had always used wolves and now the Empire was seeking to have the wolf population in Nordberg culled to avoid more casualties and stolen resources. Again, Ox went off on his own as the battle began to calm down and the hunters lay at the Dark Lady's steel covered boots.

"Shepherd! Look! Lifeforce!" a bray called from the back of a newly mounted wolf (the minions had taught the brays how to tame the wolves to improve their hit and run tactics in raids). Tossing the permit to the snow Briar saw the largest gathering of baby seals she had ever seen... she could almost smell the blood and snow, and quickly led her forces across the ice sheets hoping to catch the seals before they saw the danger. A trio of mother seals were the first to be targeted by the minions and one was easily dispatched by Briar's sword before she went to help a group of her minions who had overturned another of the mother seals. Briar was about to thrust her sword into the adult seal's head when a voice called out that did not belong to her minions or brays.

"Stop this barbaric slaughter at once!" Briar and the horde froze, seeing a relatively large ship had sailed up along the ice sheets without anyone noticing it until the sailors had called out. Three thin humanoid figures jumped down to the ice, dressed in colourful leather armour and forest green clothes. Briar realized with some indignation that they were elves.

_"Damn tree huggers."_ The Dark Lady thought to herself still holding her sword aloft to plunge into the mother seal, who seemed just as stunned as the Overlord and the brown creatures holding her still.

"I am Florean Greenheart and these are the Soldiers of the Sanctuary! Sworn protectors of the Sanctuaries and all creatures of magical nature!"

_"Wood elves, the worst damn tree huggers of all."_ Briar added to her previous thought, rolling her eyes which had once more gained their magical blue glow. The elves that had jumped down from the ship and the few that had remained on the deck gasped at the revelation.

"You're a magical creature too! What a beautiful glow, never seen karma like that before though." one of the elves to Florean's side said.

"It looks like light magic, very powerful at that, Dude."

"You should come meet Queen Fay, she'd... "

"Jareth! We cannot bring this monster before the great Queen Fay. Look, at what she's doing..." Briar and her horde... even the mother seal had stopped struggling, were still too dumbstruck to move. The baby seals had returned from fleeing to the sea, thinking that danger had passed.

"But those eyes are beautiful." Jareth argued "She can't be doing these despicable things."

"_Aren't they in for a shock. Ha ha!_" Gnarl's voice said in her head, he must have got back from sorting out the new minions. "_I've sent some minions out to collect the seal carcasses. Very tasty are deep-fired seal dumplings, Mistress... well you know already having tried some._"

"_In a situation here Gnarl._"

"_Oh... right, sorry Mistress._"

"I'm sure there's a perfect reason for this misunderstanding." the third elf said, looking hopefully at Briar. Briar's arms were getting stiff, so she plunged her sword down, killing the mother seal. The elves were heartbroken but not Florean was galvanized into action.

"That's it! Charge soldiers, protect the fluffy ones!" Briar's forces were one step ahead and were already hacking away at the nimble elves. Florean was the only one able to reach it back to the ship which promptly sailed away, leaving Briar and her small horde to continue culling the seal pups and stripping the two dead elves of their clothes, armour and weapons. Gnarl was very pleased, unlike the newborn minions who had to take the long way back down to the Netherworld carrying the dead seals.

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Briar's forces continued following the path around the mountain, following the coast, killing seals and hunters and demolishing one other hunter camp along the way. Grubby, the leader of the minion diggers was able to create a minion gate so Briar could call some more backup but so far her warriors were proving efficient and none had been lost, injuries and new scars were present of course even on a few of the brays who had got a bit too close to the action. After a few more hours of walking and the occasional jog they had come to yet another hunting camp, this one much bigger than the other two they had demolished and Briar knew this was probably the base camp for the hunters in this whole area, once this camp was destroyed the hunters shouldn't be back for a long while.

"Lady Briar," Ox's deep, growling voice gained her attention as she watched the hunters mill around the igloos, secure in the belief that they were safe in their base camp. "Ox have plan to trick Pointy Ears." She took her eyes from the camp and turned her full attention to the large wendigo staring down on her.

"What's your plan?"

"Ox trick Pointy Ears into taking him to Sanctuary, Ox look for firey minions before Briar gets into Sanctuary."

"_That wouldn't be a bad idea Mistress. While you and the horde find a way to get in, because it's unlikely the elves are just going to let you walk in after that little fight on the ice sheets, Ox can find the Red minion hive and all you would have to do is take it to the nearest gate._" Gnarl said, having heard the wendigo over the link he and Briar shared via her mask and the Netherworld.

"Yes that is a good idea, do you think you'll be able to find the sanctuary though Ox?"

"Ox already think he found Sanctuary." the wendigo said, making Briar's eyebrows rise under her mask. "Many year ago Ox found big cave full of green plants and very warm, Pointy Ears were there too and many magic creatures. Cave actually not far from here, in small wood." Briar gave the idea some thought, trying to see if there was anything that could go wrong. So long as the elves hadn't seen Ox with her it was a good plan, it was worth a try at the very least.

"Okay, you go ahead Ox and see what you can find, be careful though," Briar warned as the large animal walked in the direction of the hunters' camp "elves maybe tree huggers but they are a little more dangerous than humans." She and the horde watched as Ox caused a little mayhem and chaos in the camp before she led her horde in a charge. The hunters were totally unprepared for their attack since they had only been concentrating on the albino wendigo. As the minions, brays and their wolf mounts tore down the igloos and freed yet more wolves from cages, Ox continued. The wendigo reached a pier where the hunters had moored their sealing boats and seeing the elves ship in the distance he called out. His distress call reaching the sensitive hearing of the pointy ears and watched as they maneuvered their ship closer, he turned to see his Lady had destroyed the camp and had made her way to the same pier he was on. From the elves point of view it looked as if she had cornered him.

Perfect, the elves would think she was trying to kill him.

Briar guessed his plan too and drew her sword from its protective sheath as she summoned a fireball in her free hand, the minions looked confused but followed the lead of their Overlord.

"Were my comrades and the fluffy ones not enough?" came Florean's annoying voice once again "Hurry! Hurry, come here boy!" Ox jumped onto the ship, almost capsizing the vessel but was able to sit in the center of the ship and avoid it sinking. "As if we didn't have enough problems with the Empire, without you trying to expunge us. Come now, back to the Sanctuary!" The ship sailed off with Ox in its grasp.

Some people thought wendigos were stupid, little better than animals, but Briar knew the truth in that they could be just as clever as humans, or Ox was just an exception to a rule, she did not know many wendigos. Either way the plan was working perfectly, she and her horde could focus on other things.

With Ox fulfilling his plan she could only wait unless she could find the cave he had told her about. He said it wasn't too far from here so if the minions searched hard they should find it. Briar carried on letting the fireball disintegrate in her hand but although she was strong in the knowledge that Ox wouldn't let her down, she was a little worried for him. He had become a very good friend during her exile underground and many times had helped her practice her sword skills.

The minions and their master came to an area of forest which had been cleared recently, Briar could smell the fresh cut wood and strong fires.

"Where trees gone?" Gloob asked, looking at a nearby stump from Grim's back.

"Someone's been logging this area." Briar explained, which was strange because this little artic woodland was too insignificant to warrant such a decision, even by the greed of the Glorious Empire. She halted her forces when she saw a collection of hunters with Empire soldiers creating a flaming blockade at the entrance of a cave. The minions, brays and their canine mounts hid behind small foliage and the larger tree stumps while Briar listened from the safety of some nearby scaffolding.

"Hurry it up! This cave is invested and the Captain wants the entrances sealed." An Empire soldier barked out at the hunters throwing logs and branches onto two flaming pyres. "They want us to hold this entrance before they send in the legions to destroy the elves stronghold."

_"Looks like we found the Sanctuary."_ Briar smiled behind her mask and her glowing eyes intensified as she gave her warriors the signal to creep forwards from their cover and attack, the brays began their quiet chants, the great roar from the burning fires covering their haunting words. Briar, however, called upon another fireball, backed away from the scaffolding and threw the powerful burning magic at the makeshift tower sending the soldiers and hunters into disarray. The minions were in their element.

"Bash! Bash! Bash!"

"For the Dark Lady!"

"For the Great Shepherd!" It was over in a couple of minutes and before Briar even had the chance to engage any of the confused humans the minions were already stripping their corpses of gold and weapons. Seeing their master head into the cave the minions and brays rushed after her, most of them losing their wolf mounts who were frightened of the still burning pyres. Only Grim and his extended pack continued to follow into the darkness of the cave.

------ LoO ------

It was dark, damp and the sounds of insects and other small animals crawling and scuttling over the walls and on the rock and stone over head could be heard clearly given how loud the echoes were in caves. It was only the glowing gem set into Briar's guantlet and the glowing eyes of her and her horde which gave this small tunnel any light but despite the glow it wasn't powerful enough to expel the darkness more than just a few feet in front of them. As they went deeper in, Briar could see dim, glowing light just a little way along the passageway and the sound of male voices accompanied it. With surprising stealth for a horde of thirty they moved on, getting close to the fire light and Briar was better able to hear the conversation.

"Oh, do hurry up! I have a warm oil and a plate of Quail's eyeballs to attend to."

"_Filthy fat bastard._" Gnarl said outraged "_Everybody knows you never eat quail eyeballs near heat! It spoils the flavour..._" the old brown minion continued to rant as

Briar pushed him from her mind so she could listen in on the conversation the Empire Governor was par of. His conversation was held by a battalion Captain that Briar could vaguely remember from the night they forced her from Nordberg, recognizable by his golden armour and pot belly. The first speaker who had got Gnarl ranting about the etiquette of food; Briar would never forget.

He was fatter than the last time she had seen him, obviously the cold was having no effect on him. Borius; the one who embodied the loss of her second home, the loss of friends... good friends. Most people would have charged, most would've damned the consequences and plunged a sword straight into the enormous flab of the Empire slob. But Briar was not other people. Borius and the captain were with a whole Empire battalion, the soldiers appeared wounded but they still had their weapons and Captains kept a firm grip on their soldiers' morale.

"Of course Borius, I thought you would like to meet the... brave survivors, who tracked the magical creatures to this area." The Captain seemed nervous about introducing his Governor to these 'survivors'. "And these are just the lucky ones." Shifting her weight a little Briar was able to get a better look at the soldiers. Most were covered in bandages while some had got only some bruises and cuts, a group of men looked completely unharmed, though one was waving his arms around like wings.

"What's up with you, Maximus?" a fellow unharmed soldier beside him asked.

"No, from now on I am called 'Miss Trixibelle Buttercup Fairy'!"

" ... ... Have you been at that Nordberg Eggnog stuff again?"

"You must all come and visit me when I move into my mushroom house." Briar liked reading and many times she had read Gnarl's books on magical creatures from cover to cover and to her there was only one species of magical creature strong enough to cast such high level of confusion magic, but was benign enough to make Maximus near harmless; a pixie. But she had seen first hand Nordberg's eggnog have a similar effect too.

What was this Sanctuary? Nordberg was cold, pixies could only live where it was hot.

"SIC, Species Identity Crisis, it's a terrible thing." The Captain explained in dismay. "While the elves were retreating they left this strange artifact behind." the men in the battalion shifted around for a bit and Briar was able to see that they had been concealing a statue. It was a beautiful, intricately carved statue of a woman wearing a heavy robe covering her from head to foot and in the woman's hands was a large, shiny, black gemstone. Probably jet or perhaps obsidian "We have no idea what it is, but it was well guarded."

"Well make sure it doesn't eat anyone, then bring it to my town hall."Borius ordered, his pudgy hands pawing at the statue's gem. The Captain began to arrange the battalion and they lifted the statue, following the gold armoured Captain and Borius further into the caves. They had left Trixiebelle and the other uninjured men to guard the area.

"_Mistress, we can't let that statue get into Borius' fat fingers!_" Gnarl all but screamed down their link. The statue had already disappeared from sight and on Gnarl's frantic order, Briar charged from her cover as did her horde who jumped down to the same level as the guards, catching them unawares. 'Trixibelle' screamed girlishly as Briar's sword, Ruffian, slipped through a gap inbetween his ribs, piercing his lungs. The minions were already overwhelming the other guards by the time Briar had pulled her sword free and cut off his head in one smooth motion, dashing his dream of a mushroom house along with his blood on the cave floor.

"_Gnarl, what's going on? What's so important about that statue?_" Briar asked allowing some of the minions to swap armour and weapons with the dead corpses.

"_That statue is actually a relic, it is very important to us minions but was stolen many thousands of years ago. It rightfully belongs to us anyway. It's a tribute to your ancestor, the Great Sorceress who called the First Minion to serve her son, the First Overlord._

_Due to absolute centuries of being worshiped by minion-kind it gained a magic of its own and is now powerful enough to act as an arcane link straight to Hell! If Borius or those soldiers damage the statue then it could cause an explosion to rival that of the Great Cataclysm!_"

That would be bad.

Briar didn't want the people pf Nordberg to become like those in Mellow Hills or the rest of the Kingdom of Belmna. Breaking into a sudden run to catch up with the battalion the minions rushed after their master, following her deeper into the caves until they came to a large natural chamber, eroded out by an underground river ran through it. In the middle of the chamber was the statue, surrounded by the bodies of the soldiers who had been carrying it; Borius, the Captain and some of the men were no where in sight; whatever happened here must have caused them to leave the statue as it was. As Briar and her forces approached she saw a group of gnomes slink away into the darkness of the cavern's shadows.

"That went easier than I expected." Briar said to herself. "_Gnomes alone couldn't have done this much damage..._" Briar thought, feeling Gnarl nod his head in silent agreement. "Make sure this isn't trap, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Empire used there own men as bait." Briar ordered several nearby minions. She recognized them as Frog and Wex, the third was one of the newborns and probably didn't have a name yet. They scurried off to do their master's bidding.

"_At least we have the statue back, after a good couple of thousand years I imagine the minions are going to be very happy to have their tribute statue back. Naturally, the Sorceress became a sort of Goddess to the minion tribes with her descendants as her messengers and saints. To us, Dear Mistress, you are a living holy artifact._" Gnarl explained as Briar watched her minions pawing and hugging at the black, Netherworld statue; the brays just observing the statue unknowing of its importance to the minions. The jovial mood shifted in an instant when Briar rounded to the river, drawing her sword and pointing it at what looked like a tree on the other side of the river. The horde thought for just a minute that maybe their master had been wrong or was just being a little jumpy, until the tree moved and they were able to take in more of its features.

"Welcome to the Sanctuary, creature of Light." It was a dryad, and she seemed to have some sort of trouble with her eyes because the plant-woman was squinting at the female Overlord. As the dryad came closer to the start of a fallen log which acted as a bridge across the river other magical creatures came to join her, pixies, fairies, elves, unicorns and more dryads came to stand on the other side of a makeshift bridge made from a fallen tree, the pixies, fairies and a couple of the elves were squinting in the same way as the dryad. "We did not mean to spook you, you can put down your sword." The dryad said in a patronizingly gentle voice.

"I think you need to look closer, I am no creature of the Light'." Briar said, Gloob, Rasp, Gash, Pummel and Torn along with some of her minions had picked up their weapons and had come to stand by her to protect both her and the statue.

"How can you say you are not a user of the Light, when your whole being is exuding it, only our precious Queen glows as brightly." The dryad said, many of the other creatures behind her nodding their heads and vocally agreeing with the tree woman.

"That 'thing' is nothing like our precious Queen!" Briar could feel Gnarl roll his eyes and sigh in exasperation as Florean's voice rang out from further up the river. "Do not let her in dryad, she is a menace to all that is fluffy and adorable, like this poor fellow here." Florean said, pointing to the huge form of Ox, still with his spiky armguards and a secretive smile on his face. Behind her mask, Briar's own face split with a smile of her own when Ox pretended to yawn and sent an elf tumbling into the river. The dryad and the other gathered creatures did not look convinced by Florean's words.

"How can you say this about her, what proof do you have that she attacked the wendigo. She is exuding light, perhaps even more so than our Queen, and you say she is the one who killed your warriors some time ago."

"Yes dryad, she was the one who gave the order to those goblins there to slaughter those lovable seal pups and my brave men. She must not be allowed in, as Queen Fay's lieutenant, I order you to block the bridge!"

The dryad and the other creatures looked at him in disbelief, but after a while the dryad used her roots to cut the bridge off and the creatures slowly left, still uncertain about the young woman on the other side of the river. Ox remained behind and looked intently at the dryad and then to his Mistress; she shook her head, she needed time to get ready before assaulting the Sanctuary and so Ox followed the creatures away from the river.

"_Come Mistress, lets get the statue back where it belongs._" Gnarl said, letting the revelation of light magic in Briar sift through his mind. "_Our furry friend will be looking for a way for you to creep in, no doubt._" The Overlord gathered her small force and when she ordered for the statue to be taken with them the five strongest in her horde, including a large black, male bray, lifted the statue and with guidance from the others followed their Mistress through the tunneling caves. The close, almost sickly heat from the inner chamber giving way to colder air.

------ LoO ------

It was night by the time the horde reached fresh air again and even though it was biting and the horde began to shiver the blowing wind was energizing and welcome after the stuffy heat and air of the cave. Briar removed her mask to breath in the fresh, relishing cold air and the have the wind nipping at her face.

"Squeak!"

Briar looked down, her sharp eyes and elegant face coming to stare at a congregation of common gnomes at her armoured feet, chattering wildly in their high voices and mousey-like language. "Squeak squeaky squeeze, squeak!"

"_My Gnomish is a little rusty, Mistress. What about you?_" Gnarl asked, only able to catch a few words from the tiny creature.

"_Enough._" the Overlord said, continuing to listen to the tiny magic creature.

"_Hmm... he says that the statue we retrieved from the dead battalion belongs to them!_" Gnarl said, translating the gnome more from habit since the previous Overlords had not bothered to learn any other languages like Briar had.

"_Typical gnomes..._" Briar said over their link. The stunned horde watched as the tiny creature jumped up and down in what looked like absolute rage.

"_He wants you to give back the statue or he'll declare war on you!... Or he wants you to marry his pet doormouse?_"

Briar sighed deeply "_You really do need to brush up on our Gnomish, Gnarl. He said he is prepared to forgive the theft if I agree to marry his Queen, called Doormouse._"

"_That would be... interesting._"

"_Not really, gnome Queens reproduce by absorbing magical energy from stronger magical creatures. Apart from this Queen Fay we've been so much about, I'm the strongest magical being in the area._" Briar explained with pride lacing her voice.

"_As it should be, Great Mistress._"

The gnome who had been arguing with Briar had grown impatient from waiting for her response and charged at Briar's armoured shin, a bad idea since the minions had drawn their weapons and the brays were already mumbling the start of their enchantment spells. All the nineteen year old Overlord felt was a slight thud against the iron armour. "_That's clearly an act of aggression, M'lady. Stomp 'em!_" As the horde surged forwards screaming and with the brays chanting and striking out with their own staffs and swords Briar's eyes took on their glow and her heavy foot came down upon the hapless gnome who had charged her. Bones crunched and muscles and blood squelched loudly under the iron protecting her feet and all the five individuals of her horde who were carrying the statue had to do was follow her along the path covered in blood drenched snow and decapitated gnome corpses. The normally fleet footed gnomes were rendered helpless since the brays were enchanting them with 'slow'; one of the hordes' favorite enchantments for its enemies. All the minions had to do was run the little creatures through with their weapons, some minions even stealing the iconic caps. The minions with the most gnome kills at the end of a mission (as the minions called the little excursions with their Overlady) was given the much coveted title of Gnome Gnasher. Briar didn't even bother to draw her sword, the minions were too quick in killing the pesky little pests for her to stick her sword in anywhere.

A second group of gnomes was waiting for them near a bridge Briar remembered led to Nordberg Town... just beyond the bridge was where the Empire had placed the catapult on the night they forced her from the town. Nostalgia kicked in as around her the horde charged the gnome forces, which fared just as well as the first group that had tried to challenge the Overlord. Briar just thought about the people who she remembered from the town, the children she and Kelda had been sent to collect on that Midwinter's Eve and the mayor as he was forced to turn her over to the Empire; the look on his face was something that had always stayed with her as she grew older and stronger in the Netherworld. She prayed the years under the Empire had not changed them, not like those of Mellow Hills.

"_Hold on a little longer, I'm coming._"

"_Pardon Mistress? That was a little too quiet for my ears._"

"_Sorry Gnarl. Just thinking to myself._"

"_Oh right. The horde awaits you Mistress._" Turning to look Briar saw the horde had indeed finished with the gnomes, leaving nothing but corpses and blood. Her five minions and dogs, along with Ramrod, were stood besides her, diligently awaiting new orders.

"Across the bridge!" Briar barked to her horde who obeyed immediately "Hopefully Grubby, or one of his diggers, can find a place to dig out a Netherworld Gate near the town." She led the way, using the smoke from the town chimney's as her compass. They soon found themselves at the place where the catapult had been placed and Briar held back her forces when she saw people, some were obviously Empire soldiers.

"Midwinter's coming soon." Briar signaled her horde to back away a few paces as she walked forwards, sticking to the cover of nearby trees and the shadow it provided from the moonlight. The speaker was a Nordbergian who was cutting wood with a friend.

"Pah! They'll be no Midwinter Feast for us. Stuffed widgeon! Borius is eating us out of Nordberg!" the other male said, loud enough to show his distress while being quiet enough so as not to draw the ears of the guards. "What the hell's a widgeon anyway?"

"Some sort of small bear, perhaps."

"You think if we put a pig in a wolf skin, Borius would notice?"

"He eats so fast I doubt his eyes focus well enough to see what he's eating anyway."

"All right for some, I've had to give up all my rations to my poor little girl. The Empire are eating us out of house and home, and they tell us there's a food shortage? Have you seen the amount of seals of the ice flats recently?" the second man explained and Briar felt her eyebrows scrunch together behind her mask. The Empire was starving the Nordbergians?

"At least we have people looking after us."

"Looking after us as we starve to death." Briar had heard enough she waved her hand and the horde followed her into the clearing.

The eyes of everyone fell onto the horde and mostly onto the tall figure dressed in intimidating armour and an expressionless mask who was leading them. The Nordbergians were filled with cautious awe, the glowing eyes clearly said this person was magical and they briefly wondered why the guards weren't attacking. But there was something... familiar about this figure... something, strangely safe, but extremely powerful and near cruel as well. The few guards in the area were unsure of what to do, the figure wasn't attacking, wasn't giving orders and the sheer feeling of intimidation pouring from the figure was weighing down their weapons and shields. The figure turned to two men who had been cutting wood and revealed to the awestruck crowd that this tall figure was a woman.

"The widgeon is a bird similar to a small chicken." she turned her glowing eyes to the guards and that's when things went crazy.

Briar drew her sword with a responding and clean 'shing' and the horde charged forwards towards the guards, most of the Nordbergians fleeing in fear, but one of the woodcutters remained nearby, looking at the battle and the sword skill of the female warrior.

She was like a dancer, her sweeping arcs were graceful and she was faster than she should have been with that armour on; the guards fell like stones to her feet, suffering severed throats and pierced hearts, the few reinforcements that came to aid them were overrun by her servants and died gruesome deaths by a multitude of blunt weapon blows to the head and severe slashes and cuts, leaving the soldiers to bleed to death in agony so the minions could focus on other guards. It came to the last guard, surrounded by the minions and entrapped in a circle with their master, he watched the blood of his comrades fall to the snow in drops from the tip of her blade and he threw his own weapons to ground, raising his hands to the cold air. Briar walked closer to him and encircled her the clawed fingers of her guantlet around his throat, he was shaking and his eyes filled with fear as the glow from her eye shone off his helmet. He was fairly young, her age maybe, probably a year or so younger. His youth would not save him.

The air became electrified as the Overlady tightened her grip on his throat as she drew out his soul, for a brief time he struggled, but the calming, sweet poison voice of the Dark Lady claimed his ears and her minions laughed and giggled over his plight. Death would be better than this, what the Lady would do to him; even the browns knew this.

The ground rumbled as Briar let go the guard's throat and before her eyes just behind her gathered horde Grubby emerged from the ground and behind him came a burst of Netherworld rock which formed itself into a gate. A blue glow emanated from it and shot into the sky like a beacon. The brown minions jumped into their nearby gate and the brays filed through the main gate, the statue with them.

The woodcutter was still nearby and he dared take a step forwards, he knew those moves, he was sure, they were so familiar. He had once been a member of the special force Nordberg Town had once paid for to tackle poaching and he remembered Briar, a young girl who had very adept at the sword. Called herself a shepherd or something. This woman couldn't be her, the Empire had said they had killed her the night they had attacked the town. She had been such a friendly young girl, very pretty. For a moment nothing happened and then she removed her mask. Her striking blue eyes were sharper, gone was the softness of youth and now the elegant lines and curves or a mature young woman had replaced it. He could see under her red hood, a trademark she had always worn, he could just see the silky strands of jet black hair. "Hello again, Hans." she said in a smooth but now recognizable voice.

"... Briar?" his tone was unbelieving but underlined with hidden hope. She just smiled and replaced her mask. The young guard followed her with glassy eyes to the gate before she turned to him.

"Take this sword, " she instructed, handing him a sword she had taken from one of her attackers, he took hold of it "put the tip to your chest," he did so " plunge it through your heart." As the young guard crumpled to the snow Briar disappeared into the blue light.

* * *

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Remember I'm always on the lookout for plot ideas, I'm hoping to turn this into quite a long story. So please, even if they seem very silly, or even as good one-shots, I'll take in everything.


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